


Broken Wings

by Shaebae



Series: Dreams [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Spoilers, Blow Jobs With Teeth, Blowjobs, Child Sex Trafficking (Mentioned), Claustrophobia, Deprogramming/Reprogramming, Doctor Fitz, Dubiously Consensual Blow Jobs, Grant Ward Redemption, I don't know what I'm doing with tags, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Isolation, Kidnapping, M/M, Not Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Compliant, Not season 07 compliant, Past Abuse, Past Brainwashing, Past Child Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Sexual Abuse, Sexy Times, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:40:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 28,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25635217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaebae/pseuds/Shaebae
Summary: Grant Ward is kidnapped by Leo Fitz, who is not everything he seems. As Leo struggles with himself and what he must do, Grant Ward learns about the future.
Relationships: Fitz/Ward, FitzWard, Leo Fitz/Grant Ward
Series: Dreams [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877551
Comments: 68
Kudos: 56





	1. Taking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KaytiKazoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaytiKazoo/gifts), [dionysus_bound](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dionysus_bound/gifts), [chrisnightmare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrisnightmare/gifts), [ElectronicCow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElectronicCow/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Without Heartbeat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4306008) by [ElectronicCow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElectronicCow/pseuds/ElectronicCow). 
  * Inspired by [Nothing Is Exempt](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2295440) by [dionysus_bound](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dionysus_bound/pseuds/dionysus_bound). 



> This takes place at the end of S1/E08/The Well, as well as the end of Season 6. This work would not exist without KaytiKazoo and ChrisNightmare and my fiancee who encouraged me to write.

Ward watched Melinda May walk into her hotel room with a bottle, leaving the door open in invitation. He looked at his room door with a sigh, putting his hand on the handle of his door. Should he join her tonight? Visions of Tommy in the well flickered behind his eyes every time he blinked. Keeping his cover was important, but right now, he just wanted to be alone. 

On the other hand, a good hard fuck might take his mind off things, get him back to feeling some semblance of normal. Too much more of this rage and he would cave to it, give himself up. As he started to let go of the handle, the door jerked open and he was dragged inside before he could even yell, the door shutting behind him and his unknown assailant. He dove forward with the motion, breaking the hold the intruder had on him and rolling over the bed he came back up with his pistol in hand, aimed at... Fitz? Who had a gun trained back at him and a fearlessly bold expression on his face, as if he'd seen much worse than Ward, and yet Ward knew that look. 

That look was a farce, hiding something. Confidence over a determination of steel. He wouldn't show fear. The Fitz that Ward knew wasn't this cocky, this confident, this aggressive. Fitz's hands didn't even shake, holding the gun-a real gun, presumably with real bullets- and as Ward kept looking, more and more pieces fell together. This Fitz was older. More wary, and afraid of Ward. As ridiculous as it seemed to his logical mind, the input from his senses told him he was facing a Fitz from the future. Ward slowly stood up and loosened his grip on the Icer, raising his hands in surrender. 

"Fitz." He said, making himself smile genuinely, kindly. "Good to see you, buddy, whatcha doin?" He asked, and it wasn't a hard reach for the friendliness, a fact that surprised him. Dammit, he was getting attached. Ward was actually concerned about this turn of events; the friendliness was to cover his confusion and nerves about the jarring nature of what his senses were telling him.

"Shhhhhh...." Fitz replied, almost smiling. "Icer on the ground, Hydra." Fuck. That was exactly the last thing Ward wanted to hear. He dropped the Icer on the ground, and Fitz whistled quietly. Six drones flew into the room and circled Ward. "We're going to talk, but not here." another short whistle and the drones dropped two thick bracelets on the bed between them. Each one was one centimetre wide and rounded, likely about a half centimetre thick at the top of the curve and was a dark steel grey in color. Ward picked them up to examine them. There was an engraving on the inside of them in a language Ward actually didn't know, but he recognized 'Leo Fitz'. 

"Put them on." Ward did as commanded warily.

"What do they say?" He asked, stalling as he was about to snap the second one on his wrist. Fitz rolled his eyes, strode over, and snapped it shut with one hand, keeping the gun and his eyes trained on Ward, and then spoke in another language, raising an eyebrow at Ward. 

"Seilbh Leo Fitz. Did that help you?" Fitz asked, amusedly, eyeing Ward, still wary.

"Not at all." Ward replied and lunged for the gun in Fitz's hand. Fitz jerked back and tossed the gun across the room and Ward promptly tackled him now that his goal had been removed from his immediate reach. Fitz rolled under Ward and turned them over so he was on top, a brief lived victory as Ward rolled them towards the gun. Fitz managed to get his knee between the two of them and kicked Ward backward and off of him, away from the weapon.

"Cadal." Fitz commanded, and Ward began to say something, but a sting came from the left bracelet and Ward flinched, as he looked down, looking at the blue spreading from his wrist, he promptly passed out.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
Leo blew out the heavy breath he'd held directly after the command. He hadn't had the chance to test the bracelets before coming out here to collect Ward, so the fact that they worked was quite frankly a miracle. He'd have to refill it before Ward awoke, but at least he had him. Once he'd gotten Ward out of the hotel onto the Zephyr 3, he shook his head, looking down at him. His fingertips skimmed his cheek, slid down to his throat, grasping briefly. Ward twitched and went unnaturally still. Fitz raised an eyebrow at the interesting reaction and let go of his light grip, his fingertips skipping down Ward's arm to the left cuff.

"It'll all work out for the best." Fitz muttered to himself as he slid further along the ledge of his sanity. "It'll all work out." Why he'd decided to save Ward from this point in time, it was manipulation, and didn't that just make him feel guilty. Ward was at his most vulnerable after this mission, and Fitz knew it. The berserker staff had gotten in Ward's head, made him angry, yes, but broke open a part of his psyche that was vulnerable.

"God you're weak." Dr. Fitz said to Fitz, and Fitz did his best to ignore him, finding the needle hole to refill the cuff Ward was wearing. "He's not here because you need him."

"We do need him." Fitz snapped back, sliding the needle into the hole and starting to slowly fill the bracelet back up. 

"But he's not here because you need him." Dr. Fitz insisted, and Fitz rolled his eyes. "He's here because you're a child, and you never really absorbed the fact that he gave you brain damage, which, you still clearly suffer from. He's here because you miss him, and isn't that just pathetic?"

"Shut up, I'm working." 

"You can multitask." Dr. Fitz replied dismissively, hands behind his back as he watched Fitz finish filling the bracelet and turning the needle to keep the fluid from escaping. Once he was finished, the needle hole seemed to just disappear. He flicked the bracelet once, and it made a hollow ring, and Fitz nodded, satisfied with the sound that it was filled to the proper level. 

"What's wrong with that, anyway?" Fitz asked, scrutinizing his work. He finally turned away from Ward. It was taking him a while to wake up, the first dose might have been heavier than he'd intended. "So what if I want this?"

"He dropped you into the ocean along with your wife. He tried to kill you." Dr. Fitz replied, shaking his head. Fitz headed over to the table and started working on another cuff, an upgrade to the one that Ward was already wearing. 

"He hasn't tried to yet." Fitz said, raising his finger and wagging it slightly. Ward had wanted a second chance with them, and Fitz was willing to give it to him, but not the psycho version of him that had dropped Fitz into the ocean. 

"That doesn't mean he wouldn't, and he won't. That doesn't mean that he won't come up behind you and snap your neck while you're working on things because you think he's asleep." Fitz didn't bother to glance back. 

"I trust him." Fitz smirked at the small, quiet sound that came from the table.

"That's both stupid and ridiculous. Why do you trust him? Because he hasn't done it yet? He's still Hydra. He attacked you and tried to disarm you and went for your gun in the hotel room, Fitz, you're pathetic and delusional." 

"I know I'm delusional, I'm talking to you again. That doesn't change that this is the right decision. We need him and he wanted a second chance with us, and I'm giving it to him. Besides. You're Hydra, and worse than him." 

"So you should have taken the version of him that knows he wants a second chance, not the one who hasn't betrayed you yet!" Dr. Fitz said frustratedly. 

"I can't stand the pity when he looked at me then. This Ward treats me like an equal, or at least, close enough to it that I don't want to murder him every time I look at him, and the rest of the team won't forgive that Ward-" 

"-And you were the only one who cared about him after he betrayed you and you wanted to try to see his side of things. You think that's going to matter to a Hydra agent?"

"No..." Fitz said, sounding dejected.

"What are you doing?" He heard a voice ask behind him, and he didn't jump, he knew it was coming. Fitz turned around. 

"Ward. I need to talk to you." Fitz said, doing his best to appear nonchalant, as if years of his most horrifying nightmares and his most erotic dreams didn't stand before him, personified by the dark haired heart-throb before him next to the worst parts of himself.

"You need something." The man agreed with a nod, but the eyebrow raise and that tone suggested concern. "You've been in here talking to yourself for the better part of thirty minutes. You kidnapped me for a reason, I'm assuming?"


	2. Breaking

Ward had been listening to Fitz since he'd started talking. The hand on his throat had woken him, but without pressure, he'd been content to see where things were going. The last thing he'd expected was to learn as much as he had, and it was clear this Fitz was unstable. Brain damage, betrayal, near murder. A wife. Ward wasn't feeling sorry for him, though, instead he was feeling confused and concerned. Ward didn't like being in the hands of unstable people for any longer than he had to be, but he didn't know where he was or how to get back. The first thing was to figure that out, which, as far as Ward knew, involved the man talking to himself. The second thing was to figure out what hadn't been said- what he was here for. And maybe he'd have found out if he'd stayed still longer, but the gasp that had escaped him when Fitz said he trusted him had given him away for sure, despite the fact that Fitz didn't turn around, he knew he had to have heard him. 

This Fitz was certainly combat capable at the minimum, and part of Ward didn't want to go up against him again. Who knew what other tricks he had up his sleeves with these cuffs or otherwise. Ward preferred to fight combat trained professionals rather than intelligent people relying on their wits for survival. He wouldn't bank on Fitz winning hand to hand, but traps, tricks, and getting away to prolong the fight and eventually get the upper hand were definitely possible from this version of the genius. Ward knew how to navigate traps, but he didn't want to. If he were being brutally honest, part of him wanted to earn that trust. Why, he wasn't sure. 

If the conversation he'd overheard had been between two people, he would have thought it staged. When it came to this, however, Fitz didn't have the kind of guile in him necessary to fake mental illness to this level, and Ward genuinely believed he wouldn't humiliate himself this way on purpose, to have let slip all that information about the future just to trick him when he could have a talk with him. No, Fitz was damaged, and it was Ward's fault. Ward felt a pang of guilt at the thought and he shook it away. He hadn't done it. He might still do it, if he ever got back to the hotel, back to the bus. He slowly got off the gurney he was on and stood up straight, trying not to cut Fitz off in the middle of a sentence. 

"I can't stand the pity when he looked at me then. This Ward treats me like an equal, or at least, close enough to it that I don't want to murder him every time I look at him, and the rest of the team won't forgive that Ward-" And Fitz's voice changed too, between something indefinably darker, and Fitz himself, that even changed, Ward recognized as Fitz and _The Other_ that was somehow _not Fitz_ and yet still Fitz, somehow. 

"-And you were the only one who cared about him after he betrayed you and you wanted to try to see his side of things. You think that's going to matter to a Hydra agent?" said _The Other_ in a tone as cruel as any Ward had ever heard... One that seemed to be _The Other's_ default tone of voice.

"No..." Fitz said, sounding dejected, and that sound tugged at Ward's heart just a little bit. He knew now was the time to get in the middle of this conversation.

"What are you doing?" Fitz didn't jump, confirming Ward's suspicion that he'd known he was awake, and Ward's eyes narrowed slightly, but he made his face impassive as Fitz turned around. 

"Ward. I need to talk to you." Fitz said calmly, as if he hadn't just been talking to himself or as if the situation were completely normal, a calm that seemed entirely authentic, which made Ward mistrust it. Better to get the elephant out of the room immediately rather than sit on it. 

"You need something." Ward agreed, nodding, his tone slightly sarcastic, an eyebrow raised. "You've been in here talking to yourself for the better part of thirty minutes. You kidnapped me for a reason, I'm assuming?" 

"Not myself." Fitz said, waving a hand dismissively, then paused. "Well... Okay, myself, but not me. It's complicated, and I'll get to it, but there are more important-"

"More important than understanding my captor's mental state?" Ward interrupted, not having it in the slightest. He wanted to know, and he wanted to know right NOW. He glared at Fitz and let himself naturally move into an intimidating pose, changing from his earlier tactic. Fitz looked wholly unaffected. 

"Later. I'm not saying no, I'm saying not right now. For now, I have to keep you a secret, so I need you to come with me."

"Where are we?" Ward asked quietly, his eyes flicking around as he followed Fitz. 

"We're on one of six space vessels I've built, this one is called Zephyr 3, modeled after the bus... kinda. We're also in 1937." Ward stopped short and stared at the back of Fitz's head. 

"Are you serious?" He hissed in surprise. 

"Dead serious." Fitz smiled back at Ward. "So if you ever want to get back to a time you exist, I guess you'd better listen to me." Ward's eyes narrowed, and something flickered behind Fitz's eyes that made him back down. He didn't want to meet that voice he'd heard, and something in that look made him think it was very possible. Things were strange enough as it was without challenging Fitz and facing something he didn't understand yet. For now, he was trapped.

Ward didn't do well with captivity. He'd rather escape, but how did you escape a time? Fitz was collecting things from the Bus and putting them in a bag, looked like he was making a survival kit. A tent, rations, rope, a machete, a fishing net, a handheld flint and steel that that were attached to each other, some sunblock, and he took the parachute out of a parachute bag and added the nylon to the kit he was making. They were on some kind of island, Ward guessed by the contents of the bag. Then Fitz handed off the bag to Ward. 

"You're giving me a machete." Ward deadpanned, somewhat exasperated. "You kidnapped me and now you're giving me a machete."

"Be quiet or I drop you with nothing." Fitz snapped, and Ward's mouth snapped shut. Drop him where? 

"I have ensured the security feed recorded nothing and the others have been kept away from you for now, but they are starting to get curious." Said a measured, almost robotic voice from behind them both, and Ward turned around, ready to fight. Fitz put a hand on Ward's arm, having turned around at the same time. 

"Who the fuck-"

"Ward, this is Enoch. Enoch, this is Grant Douglas Ward." Fitz replied, squeezing Ward's arm and Ward lowered his hands slowly. 

"Yes, I gathered as much. I am a sentient Chronicom from a planet which revolves around a star in the constellation you know as Cygnus." Enoch nodded. "I have assisted in your capture."

"Thanks." Ward replied sarcastically. 

"You are most welcome. Fitz, what shall I tell the others?" Enoch asked, tilting his head. 

"Tell them that I'll be off the Zephyr for a little while with my project and not to come looking for me."

"I don't understand the secrecy." Enoch replied. "Your friends trust you." 

"They don't trust him, though, and they would kill him on sight. I wouldn't get the chance to explain if he was anywhere within sight or reach."

"I see. I will tell them you will be off the Zephyr for a little while with your project and not to come looking for you. When should I come looking for you?" Fitz looked at Ward, who was silent, just taking in what was happening, assessing all of his options. The cargo bay doors were open, and he could just leave. His curiosity would be the death of him, however. All the time he spent assessing and listening to the conversation wound up leaving him no time to plan an escape.

"Two hours, if I'm not back by then, assume things went... poorly, and I can't make it back on my own. Oh, and Enoch, if he kills me, hunt him down and kill him." Enoch nodded. "Ward, let's go." Fitz turned around and headed off the Zephyr.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Once they were finally off the bus, Ward looked around. He guessed the island was in the Maldives, population 500,000, or thereabouts in their time. In 1937, Ward didn't know. With a majority Muslim population, The Maldives were a collection of- Ward stopped the automatic assessment of his location. It would be useless if he was actually wrong about which island nation he was on. He'd resume when he was able to fully locate himself, if it seemed like he could apply what he knew from the future to the past at all... IF he really was in the past.

"How do I know you're telling me the truth?" Ward questioned. Fitz paused and looked at Ward thoughtfully. 

"The truth about what in specific?" Fitz asked. 

"About the year."

"I guess you don't." Fitz replied with an unconcerned shrug. "All you need to know is to stay here." Fitz's voice dropped into the cold tone of _The Other._ "Do not make me hunt you down, because I will find you and I will punish you." Ward eyed Fitz warily, not quite ready to back down, but not wanting to push whatever was in Fitz. 

"So you're just going to leave me here?" He asked, hoping the change of topic would make Fitz come back. 

"For about two weeks. I have things I have to attend to." Ward's mind flickered to Garrett, and being left out in the woods. Hopefully, Fitz would make good on his word and be back in two weeks, otherwise when Fitz came back, Ward would be seeing how good of a hunter Enoch was.

"So I'm guessing our conversation is going to be waiting two weeks as well."

"No, not all of it." Fitz replied, lifting his hand to shade his eyes from the sun, and then heading into the forested area of the island. Not the Maldives, now that he looked closer at the trees. Maybe in the West Indies. This time he was being left out in a rain forest. He could survive it, but it wouldn't be fun. "I trust you know enough survival to be able to stay out here for a couple weeks." Fitz said, glancing at Ward for a response, who nodded. "I'm obviously from the future, and if you couldn't figure that out, I'm actually going to be surprised. now, You asked about why I kidnapped you. The truth is that I, well, WE, need you. Your skills, what you can do, to face a threat to, well, literally the entire planet." Ward's eyebrows would have disappeared into his hairline if they could have. Regardless of what he said, Ward was convinced that 'I' was more true than 'we'.

"That sounds like an avenger level issue."

"Yeah, well we don't have them on speed dial as far as I know." Fitz replied, somewhat amused. "Regardless, the extra hands would be amazingly useful, and to be honest, this version of us may not survive."

"So then why don't I go with you and just help right now, and you drop me off?"

"Because I'm changing the past." 

"Shouldn't you ummm, not do that?" Ward pulled a face. Fitz, or more accurately The Other, laughed darkly, and Fitz waved it away before it spoke.

"I'm hoping to let at least one version of us survive this... and I really think you could be the difference between life or the extinction of the human race." Ward took a sharp breath in. That was a heavy burden suddenly put on him. "You also asked about my mental health." Fitz took a deep breath, looking nervous, and sighed it out. "That's a long answer."


	3. Learning

Fitz took a deep breath. Ward had been compliant thus far and Fitz wasn't confident on why, but he was grateful for it. Ward was not an easy opponent. Perhaps he'd be less compliant once he knew the truth.

"You also asked about my mental health. That's a long answer." Fitz looked up though the trees and then back at Ward, trying not to show how hard this would be for him. One arm ran up and down the length of the other in a slow self-soothing gesture. "So let's set up camp while we talk." Ward looked wary, but he nodded. 

The set up of the tent came first, Fitz working and talking, letting his hands work helped to hide how they shook as he spoke. 

"In your future, we find out you're hydra. I, I didn't believe it, but as you know, I was wrong. You drop Simmons and I from the bus into the ocean in a med pod, trying to kill us." 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Ward listened to Fitz talking quietly, raising his eyebrow occasionally, intending to stay silent, but that was not even remotely accurate. When Ward intended to kill someone, they died. He wouldn't drop them out of a plane in a floating box.

"I wasn't trying to kill you, the med pods float." 

"They didn't. When I saw you later, you did say that you were trying to save us. I wasn't really listening to you then, I was trying to process everything. I had no idea you were being kept with us, so finding you was a shock." Fitz shook his head and looked at Ward, then away. Vulnerability. It was a weakness Ward had been trained to exploit, but for now, he tucked it away in the folder of useful information and listened to Fitz continue talking.

"The med pod should have floated, but it sank, 90 feet below the ocean. I saved Simmons, and she saved me... but I was damaged. Hypoxia. Hallucinations. Brain damage. My hands wouldn't work right, I couldn't even build things, I couldn't figure things out, I could barely even talk. The first of the hallucinations was Jemma. She didn't know how to deal with how I changed... so she left, and I started thinking she was still there, hallucinating her." Ward gently pushed Fitz back away from the tent, working on it himself. Fitz was having trouble like he was reliving it, and Ward knew that look. Another weakness to exploit.

"Anyway, a lot more happened that would take longer than we have to explain to you, but you escaped, and I got better, a little bit at a time. Jemma tried to kill you, May made you kill your girlfriend, you murdered Coulson's girlfriend. You kidnapped Simmons and I and had her tortured and made me listen." Ward's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Coulson went on a rampage trying to kill you... and he did. You two got into a fight, and he crushed your chest in front of me while I begged him to stop, we had to leave before we couldn't. That... fucked me up for a long time... Watching you die. Somewhere, I hoped... Even after everything, I hoped."

"Fitz..." Fitz raised a hand to stop him from talking. 

"I'm not even close to the end." Ward blinked in surprise. "You died in front of me, and I started dreaming about you again. Hallucinating you off and on, but I couldn't tell anyone... I didn't trust anyone enough to tell them about it, really. Until one day you weren't a hallucination, your body, it had been taken over by a gothed-up creature called Hive and had made it off the alien planet where it had been stranded and used your dead body to live inside of. That was a horrifying time, since it had brainwashing powers and it brainwashed Daisy-Skye, to you." 

Fitz took a deep breath and started gathering wood for a fire as he spoke, making a small clearing in the brush for a fire pit. "After we finally killed it, I started working on projects to keep my mind off of it, it really, really screwed with me, watching you die, watching you wander around alive afterwards, but not really you. I made an AI and a thing called the Framework, an artificial reality simulator."

"Wow." Ward said, having finished setting up the tent, he sat on a rock to just listen to Fitz talk, analyzing everything he was told and filing it away to think about. This story was much more than he'd expected to be told. An interrogator would have a field day with all the information that Fitz was just giving him freely, and it again made Ward want to be worthy of that trust, but he shook his head slowly. No, that wasn't in the cards here, the plan was to live through whatever Fitz had planned and go back to his own time, follow his orders.

"The AI went rogue, which is entirely predictable in retrospect, and put me into the framework." His hands worked steadily on the task of building the fire. "There, I was the second in command of Hydra, an egotistical torturer, a sadist, and a biologist. Hydra was as respected as SHIELD in that world... Actually, it was a world power, a dictatorship. People hunted down gifted and inhuman individuals and turned them over to us, where I'd perform grotesque experiments on them. Most of them didn't survive it." An oddly charming smile came to Fitz's lips as he looked up at Ward. "When I got out of the framework, Doctor Leo Fitz didn't go away. I could still hear him, and the less sleep I've had, the worse it gets. That's who you heard me talking to."

"....................." Ward stayed silent, just digesting the information as Fitz went about the process of starting the fire with a small book of matches, nodding to himself. He'd think about the details more when he had the opportunity to be alone, but for now, he was still gathering intel. In the interest of that, Ward took a deep breath and looked at Fitz. "So Dr. Fitz, is the other voice, the other you. Why does he pick on you?"

"He thinks I'm weak, and he's in my subconcious, he knows what I think before I even do."

"So, does he take over when he talks?"

"You mean, will you have to face him at some point?" Fitz asked, looking up from the fire, and the reflected firelight in his eyes was almost eerie. "Depends on how much sleep I get, but no, I don't think so. The last time he took over me was to torture Daisy." 

Ward flinched at how directly Fitz admitted he'd tortured one of his friends. He was certainly more wary now than he had been before. "Why tell me all of this?" 

"Honestly?"

"Preferably." Ward replied, sarcasm and exasperation dripping heavily from his words.

"Because I think you've been dicked around in your life enough, dealt with spies and liars and assholes, and I don't want to be another one. Sure, we kidnapped you, but not to fuck you over. I just want to convince you that the world needs you more than Garrett does. I know you feel like you owe him, and you're aimless without him, but you nearly begged to rejoin us, and I wish you'd gotten the chance. I've always seen the good in you. I still don't believe you'd betray us if you knew how much you were really losing, how much all of us loved you."

"What happens if you don't convince me?" Ward thought he heard 'I' in that we, in that "us", but he filed it away. 

"I send you back eventually anyway, and hope I make enough of a dent that when it comes down to it, you at least have second thoughts about killing Victoria Hand, Eric Koenig and whoever else you killed."

"Victoria Hand sent us out into the field without and extraction plan. I already want her dead." Ward said nonchalantly.

"You could handle that." 

"You couldn't." Ward responded, letting concern leak into his tone. It didn't hurt to let Fitz think some of his feelings were returned. 

"I did handle it."

"Yes, you did, that's true. It doesn't make me less angry about it. You weren't prepared, and she told us there was an extraction. She lied." 

"When the choice comes down to Victoria Hand or Garrett, kill both of them for all I care. the important thing is that Garrett dies."

"Why not turn me in to May or Coulson?"

"...." Fitz sat quiet for a moment, then stood up and pulled a gun out of the back of his pants and started fiddling with it, casually pointing it in Ward's direction as he glanced in his direction, and Ward took the threat for what it was.

"Okay. Because you want me to change my mind on my own. You think threats are going to do that?" Ward asked, lifting his hands. Fitz kept his eyes on Ward's maintaining eye contact. 

"No." Fitz raised the gun higher and shot an iguana off a branch. The gun he was holding made an odd sound that took Ward a moment to place. A BB gun. Fitz walked around him and brought the animal in front of Ward. "They eat these here. Good idea for you to get used to it, I'm not sure those rations will last the entire two weeks." 

"They won't." Ward replied promptly, estimating by the weight of the bag. He took the iguana, oddly touched. Garrett would have eaten the damned thing in front of him. Garrett had left him al... Did Fitz know about that, was this on purpose, mimicking Garrett to show him something better, to give him a contrast? Was Ward falling for such a simple manipulation tactic already? Fitz put the gun back in his waistband. "So, this changing the past, what do you hope happens?" 

"You're still living and part of our team when this happens. We don't get dropped in the ocean. Simmons doesn't wind up on an alien planet, you don't wind up kidnapping the both of us to get to the planet, you don't die or get possessed, Daisy's boyfriend doesn't sacrifice himself. Hopefully I don't make AIDA, the AI, or I don't make the Framework, You get to travel to the future with us and come back and we change time and prove the multiverse together. Hunter Chronicoms threaten the world -not Enoch, he's an anthropologist- and together we can all save the planet, multiple times." Fitz sighed and dusted his pants off. 

"I have to go. We'll talk more again next time." Fitz said, and walked away. Ward was tempted to follow him, but didn't. He watched Fitz leave, and used the machete carefully to prepare the Iguana for his first meal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a hard one to write. Sorry if it feels rushed.


	4. Studying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Fitz takes over the workload for a short while; Grant Ward considers the information he's been given.

Fitz listened for the sound of following footsteps but didn't hear them, and he was grateful. He didn't want to get into another scuffle with Ward, not right now. As he walked, the tears started pouring down his face in a silent parade and he, once out of hearing and sight range, ran for the Zephyr. He landed hard on the cargo ramp, sobbing and out of breath, curling up tight and letting out gasping breaths as he was dragged inside by Enoch. The cargo door shut behind them. Enoch brought him a bottle of water and patted his shoulder. 

"Pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic." Dr. Fitz said, shaking his head, and Fitz snarled in response. 

"Shut up!" Enoch pursed his lips. 

"Fitz, you need sleep, and you need to calm down." Enoch said, attempting a sympathetic tone of voice. 

"I need this to work, that's what I need. I need to break Garrett's conditioning. I have to look through the files again." Fitz replied, moving away from the hand patting his shoulder. "I-I have to work, I have to figure this out, I-" Fitz took a deep breath, dissolving into sobs again as he sank to his hands and knees. "I can't, it's too much, all of it, why did I answer him, I wasn't ready, oh god I think I'm gonna be sick." Fitz took big gulps of air, in and out until finally he managed to start breathing normally. He slowly stood up and dusted off his hands, then wiped the tears from his face. 

"Pathetic." Dr. Fitz repeated and walked deeper into the Zephyr. Enoch's lips pursed in worry as he followed. 

"The rest of the team is waiting for debrief." Enoch said worriedly, though his tone remained as it always was.

"They can continue to wait." Dr. Fitz replied dismissively. He headed to the place where they kept all the paperwork on Grant, and sat down to study it again and go over the plan. The rations he'd prepared were already a part of making sure Grant's previous conditioning was effectively broken. Out in the cabin in the woods, the water had been contaminated with chemicals meant to ensure Grant's devotion to Garrett. The rations had the same chemical compound. According to his studies, a second dosage at a lower amount would be sufficient to change Grant's loyalties to the first person he saw, but some basic training and protocols would have to be followed. Two weeks of isolation with the chemical was a start, and the rations he'd packed Grant would last two weeks with supplements from the local fauna and flora, most of which had trace amounts of the chemical as well. 

Fitz had been preparing this particular place for several months, whenever he had time alone. In this year the island was entirely unpopulated, which meant Grant wouldn't potentially wander into someone else that would ruin the experiment. For now, all there was to do was wait, study the tactics on the original training, and set down his own ground rules. Simmons would never forgive him when she found out what he was doing, but Fitz needed to be unimpeded to make this work, which was why Dr. Fitz had every intention of divorcing Simmons after this briefing. Despite his consistent bullying, Dr. Fitz understood perfectly well the motivations for grabbing Grant from when he was grabbed. The simplest answer was to break Garrett's conditioning, replace it with an attachment to Fitz, and Grant would kill Garrett instead of Victoria Hand when the choice was given to him. The question was whether Fitz had the stomach for it, or if he would have to do all the heavy lifting. Dr. Fitz skimmed the paperwork before him, looking for Garrett's training notes.

Grant's training was a part of something called Operation: Codex, a project spanning his entire life. Grant's parents had been Hydra operatives, and each of his sons were subjected to particular abuses in line with the building of their psyche. Grant was made to be a follower, forced to obey Christian out of fear, and this was reinforced by their mother, who ensured Grant never had anywhere safe to go, leaving him vulnerable to conditioning later. With early childhood lack of support, it was ensured that he would never reach outside of himself for help. 

It didn't start there, though. As a young child, Grant had been given infusions of Jiaying's blood, giving him minor regenerative powers, nothing so overt as to put him on the index, but enough to ensure rapid healing, which was of use to them when his father, Senator Ward would take Grant to functions and sex trafficked him to powerful people in exchange for more power and whatever Grant could find out information-wise about them or from their pillow talk, training him to be a spy even as he was using him for personal gain. 

When Grant left military school to burn down the family home, Hydra knew taking him out of the juvenile detention center was strategically important, so Senator Ward contacted his superiors, and Garrett was selected to begin phase two of Operation: Codex. Doctor Fitz put the paperwork down. He knew all of that already. Where had Fitz put the relevant files? He waved a hand in frustration and got up, leaving the room to go give his brief to the others and to divorce his wife. He'd find the paperwork later. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
While the iguana was cooking, Ward took stock of everything he'd been given, laying it all out inside the tent. The rope was a sturdy one, looked like thick hemp. The fishing net was made of the same material. The flint and steel would come in useful to make fires after he'd put this one out. Sunblock, SPF 100. Ward didn't use sunblock often, but since it was provided, might as well. A flashlight that he hadn't seen the man add to the bag but was there regardless. The parachute could have many uses, not least of which was making a hammock if it turned out that sleeping on the ground was not the best idea out here. 

He opened the ration bag. A water purifying bottle, five water bottles, 14 protein bars, rabbit jerky, seven MRE's, an assortment of spices, including his favourite, ground cloves, a two pound bag of trail mix, made up of dried fruit, raisins and he guessed cranberries, or cherries, and cashews, almonds, macadamias. No peanuts, walnuts, pecans, dried pineapple, apple, or coconut, and Ward wondered how much attention his Fitz was paying to him now, that future Fitz remembered what Ward would pick out and refuse to eat in a bag of trail mix, and to know his favourite spice? A lot of attention, would have to be the answer. Ward himself didn't pay that much attention to the scrawny little lab rat, seeing as he hid his affection well, Ward generally paid more attention to Simmons, carefully encouraging her crush on him as subtly as he could manage.

So they both had crushes on him, a fact Ward had to take a few minutes to swallow. Alone now, he took the time to mull over all the information given to him, and all the information he had gleaned about his captor. He'd jokingly said before that he was everyone's type, but finding out that essentially, everyone on the bus aside from his CO wanted him was certainly not the kind of thing he'd expected. Fitz tried to hide it, but Ward had his suspicions about it since The Other had been needling Fitz about missing him. 

That was another thing. The Other was a manifestation of psychosis. According to Fitz, he was an egotistical torturer and a sadist. It was one of the few times Ward hadn't been relieved by getting new information during a captivity. He didn't really know what to do with that information but to stow it and hope he didn't have to face down a man who somehow led HYDRA in another reality. He'd heard the bit about it being a virtual reality, but a game didn't take you over that way, there had to be more to the story, or rather, more to the details of this 'framework'. 

Fitz had been trembling like a leaf by the time he left. Ward had noted the shakes when he pushed Fitz away from the tent, but Fitz's voice had stayed so calm and even that Ward hadn't thought much of it at the time. Honestly, the little mouse escaped his notice most of the time that way. Fitz had the daring to yell at him within days of meeting him, but he moused around so often and made himself so unobtrusive Ward had gotten attached to him without realizing he ever really noticed the man. 

Even now Ward couldn't remember what color eyes he had. He'd just been staring at the man, but he couldn't remember his eye color or even decide whether Fitz's hair was auburn, dirty blonde, or light brown. Yet still, Ward found fondness for the Scot had wormed it's way inside him, and that irked him. It was a weakness, and between Fitz and Skye he'd still choose Skye at the end of the day, and Garrett over either of them, so he could forgive himself. 

He found that despite being able to easily predict the scot on the bus, he couldn't quite figure this one out. Stepping out of the tent, he tried to put the pieces together. Mental illness with psychotic features, manifested by hearing and talking to voices. That much he could deal with, regardless of how dangerous that voice was, Ward was more dangerous than the Scot could hope to ever become. 

Ward looked at the cuffs on his wrists. The left wrist put him to sleep, so the right wrist had to do something else. That was another variable. They fit too snugly to remove by dislocating his thumb, unlike handcuffs. They were also oddly comfortable, a fact that irrationally angered him. They were perfectly tailored to him and they didn't even itch in the slightest.

None of this came remotely close to giving him a solution off the island. Tomorrow he'd go for a run, back to the beach and around the island, but he could tell it was small already. There were few curious creatures around, all of them small, and he still didn't know where exactly he was. The exploration would help with that no doubt. For now, it seemed that his only way off this island was the man who brought him there, but Ward wasn't inclined to... He paused and looked around. 

The island was filled with birdsong, fairly normal. No, what sent Ward's teeth on edge was the idea of hidden cameras watching his movements. Where would the scot put something like that? How small were they? The Scot was certainly brilliant enough to make them nearly undetectable. No, he'd likely frustrate himself trying to find them. He forced himself to relax and check the iguana. He knew iguana meat could be cooked basically any way someone would cook chicken since they carried the same bacteria, specifically salmonella. He forced himself to sit instead of searching for cameras, watching the skinned meat cook on his makeshift spit. 

Fitz knew how to build a fire. That shouldn't surprise him, but knowing how to do something academically, versus knowing how to do something literally was a big difference. Yet here was the fire that Fitz had build with his own two hands, and Ward wasn't impressed, just surprised the man had such a practical skill. Ward hardly had to do anything to it to keep it going, even after having taken the time to go to the beach and gut and clean the creature. Ward hadn't been this alone since the five years he'd spent in the woods, and in a way, it was nice.

The part that wasn't so nice was all the time he had to think about his choices, no doubt the reason he was out here in the first place. He took the iguana off the fire and set it on it's stick in the dirt to cool. He carefully sipped at the water bottle. Rationing the water was important, as he didn't know whether or not that filter would work for salt water. It should, if there wasn't a source of fresh water on the island, he doubted Fitz would overlook something that could kill him....

And for some reason he trusted that. Ward couldn't define to himself why he trusted that he wasn't out here to die, he'd managed to give this version of Fitz brain damage, and yet he didn't think either Fitz or The Other would try to kill him somehow. He believed that he was here because the world was ending, and wasn't that a bitch. Ward laughed quietly to himself. He believed his captor. Stockholm took longer than this, so that meant something else. What it meant, he wasn't sure of either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter coming tomorrow! All your reviews are lovely, thank you, they help keep up the motivation to keep posting. <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Fitz talks to Jemma, Ward ponders his situation and explores the island.

After the briefing with Mack, Jemma and Daisy, Dr. Fitz pulled up a private video conference with Jemma. After seeing the deepest, darkest parts of her, he didn't have much trouble with her other than the weakness she represented, but she'd proven herself to be loyal and worthy, even when faced with adversity. There were things that still irked him about her, including the entire saga with Will, but all in all she was a good ally and lover. He liked her rationality best, and he was banking on it being at the forefront to make this transition easy. Fitz would be angry with him, but he'd deal with that later.

"Leo." She said, and he mentally waved away the familiarity. She was due some, considering they were married and lovers. He focused on her face, measuring his words carefully, trying not to overthink things. 

"Jemma. You heard the plan."

"I don't like it Leo, I don't think it's going to work. There are too many unknown variables. What if his primary diet consists of fish while he's there? There's no way that you actually contaminated the entire surrounding ocean enough to ensure that this works." Jemma asked reasonably, and Dr. Fitz nodded, listening. 

"I accounted for that, I made sure that he had enough of a dose in his rations. The last time he was left out in the woods, he didn't entirely rough it, he stole what he could manage from other campsites and nearby locations. He's going to eat what I provided, at the minimum he'll drink the water because he'll have to. The water purifier I provided is designed to release the chemical as well, and the seasonings I left him also have it, so if he uses them on his fish, he'll still be getting the chemical." Jemma nodded thoughtfully, tapping her fingertips together. 

"I shouldn't ask YOU this, but doesn't this feel wrong? Brainwashing him and making him attached to you?" Dr. Fitz chuckled and shook his head. 

"I'm hardly using him for my own gain. This is important. Additionally, I'm the only option. Everyone else would take the opportunity to kill him the minute he started trusting them, aside from perhaps Mack, but Mack has a lot on his plate right now. Your husband has this well in hand. Grant is already trusting us and listening to us, and we haven't even started." Technically, that wasn't entirely true, seeing as Dr. Fitz had added the chemical component carefully to the dendrotoxin, so Grant had already had a dose. Jemma didn't need to know that though. It was easier to let her believe that Grant was pliable on his own. The formula for success was an initial exposure to the chemical and the future handler, isolation with the chemical, then the chemical in addition to specific interactions with the replacement handler and a minimum of interactions with others during this time.

"So what happens to that attachment when he goes back to his time?" Simmons asked after a moment of silent contemplation.

"He will choose us over Garrett when the choice comes."

"You sound, very sure of that." 

"Hydra's research and study on their own compounds was very thorough. What's giving me trouble is the disorganized nature of Garrett's notes on Grant specifically. The files Daisy obtained from CyberTek included studies on more than just Grant. This method hasn't failed, provided the same bonding experiences are used. That brings me to the reason why we're having a private conference." Jemma sighed and nodded. 

"I'm not going to like this, am I?" Dr. Fitz shook his head. 

"No. You're not." He replied simply and let her adjust in her seat and take a moment to prepare. "Firstly, I have to teach him something, and I MAY have to have sex with him."

"NO!" Jemma burst out immediately. 

"I'm not asking for permission." Dr. Fitz replied mildly. "I'm informing you, and asking you for a divorce. I have every intention of going through with this with or without your blessing." Jemma was staring at him, her jaw dropped. 

"Fitz can't be okay with this." She replied, shaking her head finally. 

"He already understands the necessity of it, and after the last time with Daisy, he knows better than to stop me from getting my way. No, he doesn't LIKE it, but he'll learn to deal with it."

"Your way... This entire project was your idea, wasn't it?" She accused. 

"No it wasn't. The plans and methodology are mine of course, but the idea to rehabilitate and have Grant as an ally was entirely his. I've only been involved as much as he's allowed me to be."

"...And the divorce?"

"My idea. Avoiding the guilt that would undoubtedly come from doing this the way it needs to be done." He watched her as she pressed her fingers to her temples. "I anticipated you would have problems with what needed to be done."

"My problem is you being that vulnerable anywhere near Grant Ward." Dr. Fitz tilted his head, curiously. He had not anticipated that answer. He stayed silent, letting her continue. "I'm not opposed to the idea of opening our relationship to include this particular instance, but I don't think it's safe. What are you even going to teach him that will make any sense and be of any use?"

"Gaelic. A new language is always of use. I'm not going to teach him anything he can use to kill me." 

"Gaelic." She deadpanned, her face scrunching up in annoyance. "How is that equivalent to whatever Garrett taught him?"

"You mean shooting? or Russian, German, Spanish-"

"I get your point." She said, annoyed. "I'm not losing you now. Not to HIM. It's not happening, Leo." Dr. Fitz raised an eyebrow and considered her compromise. "I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to know anything about it, in fact, thinking about it makes me want to puke, but I won't stop you either." 

"I suppose that's agreeable. You understand that changing the past in the way that I am may have repercussions that I can't foresee, right?" Jemma nodded. 

"You want to know what problems I see? Then you should have asked me before actually doing it." 

"You would have talked us out of it." 

"Yes, I would have." Jemma shrugged one shoulder. "Too late now." 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-   
The next morning Ward was awake before dawn. His mind refused to wander during his exercises, giving his full focus to them until his run, when he finally let his focus drift and considered his situation, fishing net slung over his shoulder as he ran. He ran close to the forest, keeping the beach on his left, keeping a careful observation on his surroundings as he thought. 

The first thing to do was to figure out where he was. 1937. He wished he'd paid more attention in history classes, but scolding himself for that now was pointless. He had no idea what was going on in the world at this time. It was between the World Wars, he thought at least. World War One had ended in what, 1933? He shook his head and kept running. That was a dead end. The island itself was nowhere he had ever been before, and he saw no other signs of habitation or even human interference with the island. 

His mind strayed back to his captor, Leo Fitz, and tried to put together a mental file on the man, but nothing new came to mind immediately. Too much time to think was a problem at the moment, he worked better under some kind of pressure. This didn't feel like pressure, it felt like he was being forced to take a vacation. The blue water, clear skies, lack of people would be an ideal vacation for him. Perhaps Fitz meant what he said about not wanting to dick him around. More and more Ward kept coming back to the idea that he wasn't being lied to. 

That by itself was almost unbelievable. If he didn't know for sure there was no way that his Fitz was capable of such an elaborate ruse, he would have said Coulson set this up. Or Fury. But no, he believed it was true. Which meant the future of the planet might just hinge entirely on his future choices. Not killing Hand, not killing someone named Eric Koenig he could do. Betraying and killing Garrett was unthinkable. He owed him so much, damn near his very life. 

Garrett would be calling him weak and worthless right now if he could see how Ward was caving to this, if he knew how touched Ward was at being given some food, if he knew he was attached to Leopold Fitz. Ward stopped running abruptly, realizing he'd passed his initial landmark already. He estimated the island was about a two hour run, making the circuit close to twelve miles around at the pace he'd set. Ward sighed and took the fishing net off his shoulder, wading into the ocean water, expecting it to be cold. Surprisingly, it wasn't. Perhaps he was still in America, on one of the smaller islands of Hawaii. if he could get his bearings, he might even be able to swim to another one. He waded out as far as he could. 

Suddenly, the right cuff gave him a sharp jolt, and he yanked it out of the water. Had he damaged it? The jolt repeated rhythmically, even out of the water, and Ward groaned. He carefully waded out father and the jolts started coming closer together, and he nearly lost his footing when one jolt came much more painfully. He swam back towards the shore, and as he predicted, it stopped. Damnit. He didn't know what to call it. A proximity sensor? In any case he was being kept on the island like an animal in an electric fence. He let loose a string of colourful curses in every language he knew. The jolts were close together enough that it did interrupt his swimming, even back to shore, and sharp enough that he knew he couldn't have just ignored them.

Well, now he knew what the right cuff did, he thought sourly, his face contorting with his displeasure. He went back towards the island and sat on the shore, nearly sulking. Of course Fitz had thought he would swim away, off the island. Why, when he'd made it impossible to leave, had Fitz threatened him if he tried to escape? Escaping wasn't possible if he was getting electrocuted too- The cuff had to be responding to something, Ward realized suddenly, bolting to his feet. There had to be some structure or mechanism on the island that was measuring the cuff's distance from it. If he could find it and disable it, he could escape. 

Escape and go where was the next question on the list. There were no other islands or landmasses within sight of the island. Ward shook his head at the fatalism that wanted to accept his lot. No. One task at a time. Locate the source of the beacon. His stomach grumbled at him and he sighed, looking at the fishing net. Get breakfast, then search the island's forest. He headed back to the campsite to grab a protein bar. He'd fish later on, for now he had more pressing concerns. 

After a breakfast consisting of a handful of trail mix and one of the 14 bars, He set out to explore the small forest, machete in hand. Birds and iguanas and other small creatures met him during his walk, nothing particularly threatening. Many frogs. The isolation was starting to annoy him, mostly because he realized he was missing the team. Lord have mercy, he fucking missed them. He shook his head hard in annoyance with himself. Particularly, he missed Fitz, and he didn't know why, and he didn't like it. 

As he searched, he decided to climb a tree to check his surroundings. Climbing up he found was harder than he'd thought, slipping on the bark as it unexpectedly started to rain. He settled in a crook of the tree and shaded his eyes to look up. The sky had been clear, when he'd left the campsite. His eyes narrowed in further annoyance. Had Fitz built a damn weather machine for the island as well? 

Why was he so important? What could he possibly do that would merit this kind of effort? He continued up the tree as high as he could go and looked around. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary except a second clearing, which is where he planned to head next. If he was lucky, what he was looking for was over there.


	6. Chapter 6

Ward headed for the clearing that he'd seen from up in the trees, swinging his machete with the rhythm of his walk. He'd missed being alone while on the bus, the constant hum of the energy of being around other people wore on his nerves. Now he missed it, the feel of warmth on his skin from someone else's body just being near, the sound of the two lab geeks chatting in the background, training Skye and hearing all of her snarky remarks, listening to Coulson's briefings, May's steel-eyed stare that he could feel prickling on his skin like a thousand sharp frost flakes.

It didn't take long at all to reach his destination, but the rain had stopped by the time he arrived, and he found a small, sturdy concrete building. Ward wandered around it in circles, slowly. Coming up on a window, he carefully touched his right hand to the glass, then, when not receiving a jolt, he cupped his hands to shade his eyes as he peeked inside, sticking the machete blade down in the dirt next to him. Inside, he could make out some exercise equipment, mirrors, some kind of desk, and what looked like a closet. Perhaps the beacon was inside there. Ward stepped back and grabbed the machete, finishing his circuit of the building, checking for traps. 

Nothing. That was odd, but then again, perhaps he was meant to find this place, meant to come in here. He walked to the door and tried it slowly, machete ready. Unlocked. He carefully walked inside, leaving the door open for the light, as the single window didn't provide much. 

A light switch on the wall didn't work, so he set to exploring with what light he did have. He found monkey bars, a pull up bar, something that looked like a bow-flex's upgraded cousin, and a treadmill, the desk, a few chairs, and under the window, a memory foam mattress on top of a steel spring one. His head tilted to the side. It looked like he had a choice. Stay in the tent, drag the memory foam out to the tent and stay there, or sleep here. He didn't mind any of his choices in particular. He'd think about it later, if it turned out that he couldn't escape. 

Ward rifled through the desk next. One drawer was locked. He could risk setting off a trap by attempting to open it with the machete, but why would Fitz trap the desk drawer? He started to pull the second drawer open and sighed. First aid supplies. Useful, should he need them, but he hadn't brought the entire bag along. Next time he went exploring on the island he would. His eyes were getting used to the dim lighting, but the flashlight still would have been useful. 

The third drawer held a notebook, pens and mechanical pencils, and two keys. Ward frowned, picking it up. One would likely be for the closet, the other for the locked drawer, he guessed, by the size of them. Why lock things and yet still give him the keys to open them? He didn't understand, but it was available, so he used it, carefully, checking to make sure the drawer wasn't wired with an explosive.

"Bingo." He muttered to himself, pulling out some gadget from the top drawer. It was disc shaped, with three buttons on it, none of which were labeled. He took it outside to be sure, get the chance to look at it in the light. Once his eyes adjusted he'd realized he'd been wrong. There was writing on it, very small letters. Under the top button was the word kitten, under the second, wolf, under the last button, Monkey. Monkey was the only one capitalized. He puzzled over it briefly. 

Monkey, definitely monkey would be the important button. He pressed it. 

Searing pain raged up his arm from the right cuff, electricity nearly burning him as he gasped for breath. As the worst pain he had ever felt seared through his consciousness, he dropped to his knees, unable to even scream. After ten continuous seconds of this pain, what felt like an eternity, he blacked out. 

Ward awoke several hours later, at sundown, still clutching the disc. The pain had stopped finally, but his head was pounding like a drum line was using it for practice. Dehydrated, that was the feeling. Groggily, he stumbled to his feet. Water. He needed to get back to his original camp. No, the first aid kit might have some, and he wasn't going to die right away if he was wrong. He looked down and around himself. Something was off, but he was too disoriented to place it.

Luckily he was right, the first aid kit did come with three additional water bottles. He made himself drink slowly. As much as he wanted to slam one down, it wouldn't help him in the long run and he was still rationing water, even with his water bottles now at 8. He slumped back against the mirror, breathing heavily. Fitz had said _The Other_ was a sadist, and now he believed him. He didn't doubt that the disc had been a trap set from the start, to punish him for looking for an escape.

He didn't dare press the other buttons. In comparison, the jolts at the beach had been a feather tickle. He scowled at the remote and shoved it back in the drawer. Who knew what other traps were set out for him on this damned place. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
Fitz jolted awake at the sound of his alarm and groaned. For this part of the project, he was minimizing his sleep to four hours a night, maintaining a certain level of health but keeping Dr. Fitz close by in case he needed him. He forced himself out of bed. It was time to find Garrett's notes for review. 

"I wasn't trying to kill you, the med pods float." Ward's words stayed in his head as he searched, and Fitz sighed, shaking his head and sitting down for a minute, not having the multi-tasking function up and running on his brain just yet, not so soon after waking up. Ward's words had been a balm on his frayed nerves, but not enough of one to keep him from having a total breakdown the minute he was far enough away. 

To know that Ward had never actually meant to hurt them meant doing this was right. Once he'd found out that Hydra had brainwashed Ward, and that in the Framework, Ward was part of SHIELD, it showed Fitz the potential for good was there, it just had to be reprogrammed. Studying what he could on the version of Grant Ward that was in the framework, and with Enoch's help, decoding the bits and bytes that had made up framework Ward and having a conversation with him had solidified the idea.

The brainwashing program used on Ward had been discontinued because of how long it took to train recruits that way, and the isolation requirements were not easily replicated on a large scale. Which reminded him, he'd placed Garrett's printed out notes in the third drawer of his second desk. He got up and grabbed them. 

Sex had featured heavily in the relationship between Garrett and Ward, a fact that did not bode well for this experiment. Fitz might have have a thousand erotic fantasies and dreams about Ward, but that didn't mean he'd actually ever done it. Years ago on the bus he'd actually done research on his personal phone to figure out how it was done, (and promptly deleted every trace of said research,) but the fact still remained he'd never had sex with a man before, and men were in short supply to figure out how it would be done, aside from enoch, and that idea made him shudder. No.

Hydra higher-ups had even commented on how heavily it featured, ordering Garrett to throttle it back due to the potential for unforseen complications, but the oxytocin release from sex was crucial to finishing the bonding process. Fitz would have to do it regardless, and he'd have to hope that he could be smooth enough, charming enough, to convince Ward he wanted it too.

Unless he could just tell Ward the truth about the situation, let Ward make some choices. If it didn't work, he could use another chemical he'd found in the Hydra database called FMF, "Forget Me Fluid" to erase roughly a day of short term memory. A monitor started beeping and he put the notes down, looking over at his bird cam. It looked like Ward had found his way out into the ocean and set off his cuff. Good, it was working. He watched carefully until Ward swam back to shore, then went back to the notes.

Garrett had used sex as both punishment and reward, and the varied ways Garrett had punished Ward left a sour taste in Fitz's mouth, but also left him despairing at the idea of coming up with anything new or original. But Garrett kept coming back to one punishment that worked above all the others. Perhaps Fitz didn't need a new punishment. Maybe he just needed the right one. 

According to Operation Codex files, parents were instructed to only use two tools to punish future Hydra lackeys, a belt, and a whip. Garrett and Grant's mother were both fond of these tools, punishing him frequently with it. Garrett leaned towards the whip, his mother the belt. Both had higher than usual rates of success in keeping Ward from repeating his mistakes. 

Mistakes that were as simple as telling his mother Christian had done something to him, and Fitz's heart squeezed in his chest. Reading the notes made his heart hurt for young Ward, the sheer lonliness that must have come from it explained his standoffish behavior and how he'd flinched every time Fitz patted him on the back, and he grimaced at his younger self ignoring those cues that something was wrong. 

Hindsight 20/20 and all that though, he couldn't blame himself too heavily for what he didn't know. At the time, he'd taken the flinching for controlling reflexes, something he'd figured Ward would get over the more comfortable he got with them. While that still might be true, Garrett and Ward's mother both had instilled a certain amount of touch aversion in Ward, something he'd have to get past if this was to work. 

Truthfully, despite his fantasies, he hoped it wouldn't come down to that. What he was doing already was manipulative enough, and he knew he couldn't maintain the level of detachment needed if it came to having sex with Ward, he'd be vulnerable, easy to kill or manipulate in return. Academically he knew it was needed, and he hated it.

"So make it matter." Dr. Fitz replied to his thoughts, and Fitz turned his head to see the man standing by the desk. It was frustrating how the man could respond to his thoughts, knew his deepest secrets, but considering what he was, it made sense. 

"How? All of this is just sheer manipulation, and we both know it." 

"Forget that. Believe exactly what you told him, you need him. He responded to your genuineness, and you need that. You need him to respond to you being, you, not you being fake. We both know that if this goes right, more will change between the two of you than just never being dropped in the ocean." Fitz's mind stuttered to a stop. Yes, academically he'd known that, and he realized now he'd been ignoring it.

"You mean Jemma and I..."

"May never be together. You may wind up with Ward instead." Fitz took slow deep breaths to keep from hyperventilating. 

"D'y think she knows?" 

"Same as you, I think she isn't letting herself think about it." Dr. Fitz put a hip on the desk carefully and looked down at Fitz. "You have to be able to live with that. Right now, in his time, Jemma has no idea that you like her-Hell, you have no idea that you like her." 

"What about May?" 

"If we're lucky, May's not attached to him yet. If we aren't, she glares at us for a while until she gets over it, and we have no idea why she's glaring." 

"You really think he'll want a relationship with us?" 

"No. But I think he'll have sex with us, and you'll want a relationship because you're soft that way."

"You're being nice. Why?" Fitz asked suspiciously, and Dr. Fitz laughed. Once he finally answered, he had a smirk on his face. 

"Because I want to get this done. Your goals are my goals, I'm just not afraid to use any means I need to to get there. If being nice to you is the means, I'm capable of it." Fitz's lips pursed. 

"You're manipulating me." 

"You're manipulating yourself. Don't forget what I am." Dr. Fitz replied, raising an eyebrow at Fitz, and Fitz took a deep breath. Right.


	7. Chapter 7

"Turbo. All of this for your project?" Mack asked, and Fitz jumped, swiveling around in his chair to face the director. 

"Uh, yes, Sir." He said, and Mack crossed his arms, looking down at Fitz thoughtfully. 

"So you really think this will work, rehabilitating him and bringing him to our side?"

"Yes, I do. His family broke him down. Garrett built him back up the way he wanted him. It's not really rehabilitation so much as reprogramming. A SHIELD deprogrammer would be following all the same steps for this particular type of brainwashing." Fitz hoped that was true, hoped he hadn't overlooked something that would make this all simpler, or make it possible to deprogram Ward entirely. 

"Alright then. You keep working on this. I and the rest of the team will be working on other things. I'm transferring to Zephyr One, so you'll have this one all to yourself for three of four weeks at the minimum." 

"I'll have to say goodbye to Daisy then." Fitz said, standing up. 

"No no, don't get up." Daisy said in a friendly tone, walking into the room. "I know you're busy. With ya know. Ward stuff." Fitz winced. Her tone was friendly, but she certainly wasn't happy about his plan and he knew it. "Do you need Enoch? Without you around we could use him." 

"What? Oh, no, no I don't _need_ Enoch." Fitz didn't want to be alone, but he understood the necessity for Enoch to go with them. None of the team understood Chronicoms except Enoch. He would be invaluable. Fitz supposed he would be spending the next two weeks as alone as Ward was. 

"Which means more time talking to me." Dr. Fitz replied to his unspoken thought, and Fitz refused to answer him with people present, pressing his lips together to make sure he didn't say Dr. Fitz's words aloud. Only Simmons and Enoch knew Dr. Fitz was capable of taking over him still, and only Enoch and Ward knew he talked to him, sometimes out loud. 

"Yo, Turbo, you with us?" Mack asked, and Fitz snapped his attention back to Mack, who had an uncanny knack of noticing whenever Fitz was distant. 

"Yes, Sir, I am, sorry. I was just thinking about whether or not I needed someone else here." 

"I'm sorry Fitz, we can't spare anyone right now." Daisy replied and Mack held up a hand. 

"We might be able to spare someone if you really need them, Fitz." Fitz pursed his lips in thought and then shook his head finally. 

"No, I think I'll be fine. I'll be able to communicate with you guys still, being alone won't be a problem." Mack nodded, and Fitz stood up to give him a hug. Mack returned the hug warmly. 

"Be careful out here, Fitz. "

"I don't like the idea of leaving you out here alone with Ward." Daisy said, shaking her head. Fitz smiled warmly at her concern and hugged her too. 

"He won't hurt me." Fitz said, feigning more confidence than he had. 

"If he does I'm going to quake his head right off his shoulders." Daisy replied, squeezing Fitz briefly and letting him go quickly. Despite the fact that he hadn't tortured Daisy himself, and the version of him that had, had died, Fitz thought he still sensed tension between the two of them over it.

"How touching. Can they leave now? We have work to do." Dr. Fitz said, rolling his finger in a hurry up motion, as well as rolling his eyes and Fitz had to try hard to avoid rolling his eyes himself. Clearly at least a part of him was impatient to get back to work- "Clearly." BUT, he wasn't going to rush them. 

Fitz made himself smile at Daisy and gave her a nod. "If he kills me, you have my permission to do whatever you need to." His heart squeezed at the words, but he wouldn't be able to stop her if he was dead. "If he hurts me, I'll handle it." Daisy looked skeptical, but nodded. 

"Alright... I still don't get it, but do your thing, Fitz." Mack clapped a hand on his shoulder. 

"I-" An alarm went off, and Fitz turned to the monitor immediately. "Oh goddamn it." Ward had found the disc remote and pressed a button. By the alarm, it had to have been Monkey. Dr. Fitz started laughing. 

"Fitz, what's going on, is he escaping?" Daisy demanded.

"No, he set off a trap, I have to, I have to find- Where is the damned thing!" He said, hurriedly yanking drawers open. A pile of papers tilted over and fell onto the ground with the force of him slamming a drawer. 

"Fitz, what are you looking for, maybe we can help!" Mack said, and Fitz took a deep breath. 

"It's a square remote with three buttons on it." He replied quickly, still searching. Daisy started searching cabinets while Mack carefully shifted paper piles. Fitz glanced at the screen panicked, where Ward was unconscious. "Where is it!" 

"Oh alright, Daisy's going to find it, it's in the cabinet." Dr. Fitz said, annoyed.

"I found it!" Daisy said at almost the same time. "Which button Fitz?" 

"The bottom one!" Daisy pressed the button and Fitz took the remote from her. He grabbed a bag and bolted to the back of the Zephyr. Daisy and Mack looked at each other, identical looks of bewilderment on their faces. 

"You get the feeling there's something we don't know?" Mack asked Daisy, and Daisy nodded slowly. Fitz opened the cargo ramp, and he threw a rope ladder off the side and climbed down it.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
Fitz found Ward, still unconcious. He immediately checked his pulse and breathing. His pulse was elevated, but he was breathing normally, and Fitz sighed deeply in relief, slumping against the wall of the building. If Dr. Fitz were there at the moment, he'd be glaring at him, but he wasn't, so Fitz just took the time to go inside the building. He added as many water bottles as would fit comfortably into the first aid kit and turned to the closet.

He pulled a second key out of his bag and unlocked the generator closet. He brushed it off lightly and started it, then closed the door as the lights flickered on. Ward had left the switch in the up position. He sighed and switched the light off, and looked down at Ward. He dragged him slightly away from the door, into a shaded area, not pulling him too far so he would hopefully not notice. 

He brushed his hand over Ward's face, looking down at him. Dangerous as he was, in his sleep, he looked like anyone else, peaceful and sweet. Fitz took another deep breath and headed back to the zephyr.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
"Everything good?" Mack asked, as soon as Fitz came back on the shuttle, and Fitz nodded, taking another deep breath. 

"Yeah, it's good. Sorry about that. He'll be unconscious for a while. I'll bring the Zephyr back to the others, and drop you off." 

"Fitz, you really have to keep an eye on him, don't you?" Daisy asked, her tone surprised. 

"There are few traps but they can hurt him a lot if he's not careful." 

"And that was one of them?" Fitz nodded, glad that Ward hadn't run into any of the other traps in front of these two, or pushed the kitten button... that would have been embarrassing... "Why are there even traps?"

"Oh." That wasn't a line of questioning he'd been prepared for, and he blinked several times, blanking on an answer for a minute before finally remembering why. 

"Because... Some of them are to keep him from escaping or looking too hard to find a way to escape. Some of them are just to add an element of difficulty to being out there." Daisy pursed her lips together. 

"What are you going to do if he escapes, Fitz?"

"Hunt him down. If he escapes I have warning systems in place." 

"Okay Turbo, we gotta get going. You can pilot this thing back once we get to our destination, right?" Mack asked, and Fitz nodded. "Alright, we'll get outta your hair then." The two left the room and Fitz looked at the mess he'd made, sighed and started picking it back up. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
Ward got off the mirror and headed for the door once he felt recovered enough, carrying the machete and water bottle. Automatically he reached to switch the light switch off as he left, but it was already in the off position. Ward frowned and slowly flipped the switch into the up position. The lights flickered to life, along with a soft hum from AC.

Someone had been here.

Ward took a deep breath and went back to the desk, grabbing the disc, setting the water bottle on the table. Someone could use that to incapacitate him whenever they wanted, and he certainly didn't want that happening. He took a deep breath and headed out the door, closing it behind him. It was dark, but he still remembered what direction his camp was, and he headed that way at a fast pace. 

Everything seemed untouched. He re-packed his bag immediately, wrapping the disc in his shirt and putting it carefully in a separate pocket where it hopefully wouldn't get jostled or any of the buttons would be pressed. He swung the machete in a circle for a moment as he thought, and nodded, flipping the flashlight on, he headed back to the building to investigate. 

He found drag marks first, where he'd been dragged closer to the trees, away from the door. A trail of broken branches led back to the beach, and smooth footprints stopped randomly above the water line. He didn't see any evidence of a plane landing, but if it had stayed in hover mode, while cloaked, he wouldn't. 

The evidence pointed to Fitz. He'd turned on the power somehow to the building and checked on him, which meant there were hidden cameras somewhere. Perhaps everywhere. his eyes narrowed. Searching for them was a project for tomorrow. For now, he went back to the tent. 

Sleep did not come easy that night, but it finally came. At 5:30, his usual hour, he woke up and shook himself off, climbing out to do his morning exercises, heading to the provided building. He did a full workout, using each machine and tool in turn. by the time he was done he was grateful for the AC. He added the first aid kit and the notebook and paper to his bag, along with the extra water bottles. 

Were the water bottles there before? He hadn't opened the first aid kit before pressing the button, so there was no way to know. Regardless, he had them now. Twelve miles around wasn't particularly large for the island he was on, getting lost was unlikely. The climate suggested he was relatively close to the equator. A decent wind constantly blew, keeping humidity fairly low for a rain forest type area. Not many mosquitoes if any, probably because there wasn't a primary food source for them here, in fact, he hadn't seen any mammals. 

Ward would kill for rabbit or squirrel or small game he was comfortable with, but he made do with an iguana. He built a fire for it and left it to cook at his original campsite, confident he'd be back before it burned.

He wasn't. 

As Grant Ward tried to pull himself out of a pit trap, covered in mud, he discovered something shiny at the bottom. Taking regulated breaths, not letting himself panic, he reassured himself he wasn't about to burn the entire forest down and die from smoke inhalation. The area Fitz had cleared was decent enough to keep the fire from spreading and he hadn't made that large of a fire. He could make the rations last until Fitz showed up, as long as Fitz showed up on time. Ward had no reason to believe Fitz wouldn't show up on time. Thusly reassured, he sighed and focused on the metal object underneath his feet. It took some digging to unearth it, but finally he did.

A hook, attached to a length of rope. Useful. So these traps weren't designed to kill him. What were they designed for then? Testing him was likely the objective. He attached the hook to his belt. Relax. Relax. That sadist was probably watching him right now. He wouldn't let him see the panic that was clawing at his throat, being trapped in such a small space. Ward continued taking deep breaths, convincing himself the pit walls weren't closing in on him. he looked up at the sky, at a bird perched at the edge of the pit, looking down curiously at him. 

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Claustrophobia was an embarrassing fear for a spy like him, and he would usually never mention or admit it, but he could feel the tears biting at the edge of his vision. Out, he needed to get out now. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. He looked at the walls of the pit as much as he didn't want to. Finally he identified some roots that could be used to climb out and carefully made his way up them. Once he was out, he took several more deep breaths, blinking away the tears that had started to form. 

He headed away from the pit when a sudden sharp yank at his waist nearly knocked him on his ass and he let out a bloodcurdling scream, imagining all the horrors of hell grabbing him and throwing him back into the pit. He managed to grab onto a branch before it could drag him back- THE FUCKING HOOK! The rational part of his mind took back over as soon as he realized what had caused the yank, and if he hadn't been so exhausted, he would have laughed at himself. 

"Fuck." He unhooked the rope from his belt and attached it to a tree. He looked down at the pit, but he couldn't see what it was tied to. Frowning, he tugged experimentally on the rope. He could lift whatever it was. He hauled on the rope until he brought up a small metal case with the rope tied to the handle. Ward untied the rope and threw the length back into the pit, just in case he ever fell in the stupid thing again. He dragged the metal case to the beach, where he washed it off and himself as well, washing off himself and his clothes as best he could. 

Ward didn't care about being naked, regardless of the cameras. Let Fitz blush behind the monitors. 

The metal box had three more MRE's and two vacuum packed changes of clothes. It wasn't worth the pit, but it was something. At least he didn't come out of his ordeal empty handed. Ward shook his head. He wasn't doing any more exploring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So glad i get to upload a chapter for my birthday! Whee! Have fun guys. <3


	8. Chapter 8

Seven days later, Fitz was getting utterly bored. There was only so many times he could go over Garrett's notes. As he watched Ward though the bird cam, he willed him to do something interesting. After falling in the pit Ward hadn't explored or found any more traps, which on the one hand was good for his experiment, as Ward was no longer looking for a way to escape. On the other hand, it was utterly, BORING. The last interesting thing Ward had done was check the building for... something. Cameras, traps, who knew. Ward just exercised, ate, swam and wrote. Oh, and fiddled with the disc remote without actually touching anything. Fitz turned away from the monitor. The temperature was over a hundred and Ward had taken shelter inside the building. If Ward was going to do anything, this weather wouldn't be the time he'd do it. 

Fitz wandered to the kitchen area and made himself a small meal of grapes and a sandwich and sat back to eat it. Afterwards he pulled up a playlist he'd made on his computer with music labeled Ward, and sat down to listen as he read through the notes yet again. 

As the music started up, it started with his favorite video in the playlist, speaking words that called to him. Every time he heard them he couldn't help but think of helping ward and his work, and sometimes it brought to mind accepting Dr. Fitz as part of himself. _To me where the Wild things are is a place that exists in our minds. It's a place of liberty, and shamelessness. It can take a split second or a lifetime to find it but once you do, you'll be free. There's a wild thing that exists in all of us. It exists in our passions, in the people we love, in our subconscious thoughts, our beliefs, it's even made a home in the darkest parts of us, but we can't be scared of it. We have to become it._

Fitz found that re-reading the notes was easier with the music playing. His Ward playlist had a varied array of songs, that almost seemed random, but made sense to him, containing songs like Sickick's Mind Games, Kerli's Diamond Hard, Bruno Mars's Grenade, and Daughtry's Traitor as well as lighter, more hopeful songs like the one that started this playlist, Alessia Cara's Wild Things, Panic! At The Disco's High Hopes, and Major Lazer and DJ Snake's Lean On. The music made it easier to read about the grotesque things Garrett had done to Ward, some of which Ward didn't even remember due to Garrett's frequent use of a Hydra memory loss tool.

Fitz only had to wait another five days, but that felt like torture, though even two weeks was pushing it, seeing as it was the absolute minimum that Hydra put down for retraining to work. Sleep was harder to come by the closer it was time to actually go back out there and his body buzzed with nervous energy. Fitz took a deep breath, trying to calm down. 

Calm wasn't coming right now. He took deep breaths, but the anxiety was back. His dreams were filled with Ward, as were his waking thoughts, and he wished he could take a walk to clear his mind. Instead he walked around the Zephyr, putting the notes down. He found himself singing along to the music as he walked, and he let himself for a while, jumping when he turned around to see Dr. Fitz, who began sarcastically clapping.

"Encore, encore." Dr. Fitz said, sarcastically. Fitz kicked a foot, looking down at the ground as Dr. Fitz approached him. "What, are you, doing." He hissed in a dark tone. 

"Taking, erm, taking a break?" Fitz asked sheepishly, putting a hand behind his head. 

"Taking a break. This must not be that important to you then, Fitz? Not as important as it is to me, for sure." Fitz blew out a breath. 

"You know that's not true. I just, I just needed-"

"I just, I just..." Dr. Fitz said mockingly, looking at Fitz angrily, and Fitz shrank back in fear. "We still haven't found a method of getting him in bed, and looking at him hoping he gets it, isn't going to cut it." Dr. Fitz snarled. "You're lucky he hasn't stumbled onto the obstacle course yet, because that gives us some options for his teaching and training. You're lucky that this chemical does most of the heavy lifting, because your dedication to the cause is clearly lacking." Fitz stumbled backwards further, falling into a chair as Dr. Fitz continued to advance on him. "You're weak. Pathetic. Useless. Stupid. You couldn't help him without me, no matter how hard you tried, you'd be a failure." 

Fitz was breathing heavily, almost panicking. Dr. Fitz was right, as much as he didn't want to admit it, Fitz couldn't have done this alone. "What do I do?" Fitz asked in a small voice. Dr. Fitz straightened up and fixed his lapels, running a hand over his slicked back hair to make sure every strand was in place and smiled like the predator he was.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
On day fourteen, Ward was standing waiting at his campsite, having dragged the memory foam bed out to the tent on day three, he was well rested, and filled with energy. He'd tried burning it off with a run around the island that had turned into more of a sprint. Either way it hadn't really helped. He still had rations, if you could call a handful of trail mix, one water bottle and two MRE's rations. He'd been counting down the days until he saw his captor again. 

So he could cut his head off with the machete, of course. 

But when Fitz arrived, bruised and bleeding from a cut over his eyes, all his anger vanished. 

"FITZ! You're wounded!" Fitz held up a hand to Ward, the other around his ribs. The way Fitz moved, one or two of them were bruised, if not cracked. Ward knew enough field medicine to patch himself up in similar situations, he'd have to apply it. He carefully eased Fitz down onto a rock and dabbed at the wound on his forehead with an alcohol wipe, saying nothing, asking no questions, just focusing on his task with steady, gentle hands. 

"Thanks." Fitz whispered quietly and grimaced. Ward nodded his response and set to stitching the forehead wound with small careful stitches, then wrapped it with gauze. The stitches weren't Simmons quality, but they'd do. Fitz barely flinched through the process, though he gritted his teeth and made small noises in the back of his throat every now and again. He carefully helped Fitz out of his shirt and looked at his ribs. 

Careful, deft fingers felt where Fitz had been holding. Fitz continued to grimace and wince, but no yelps. Despite how well Fitz handled the stitches, Ward doubted he'd gotten good enough at handling pain to keep from yelping if his ribs were cracked. He wrapped them carefully anyway, to provide some support. 

"Anywhere else?" Ward asked curtly, looking up at Fitz from the kit. Fitz looked at Ward and opened his mouth, then shut it, shaking his head. 

"I'm okay." He said finally, grimacing as he took a deep breath. 

"Try breathing shallower than that. I don't think they're broken or cracked, just bruised, but still, we should get you to medical. I'm surprised Simmons allowed you off the shuttle like this." Ward said, fishing for information, but carefully. 

"She's not around. We're alone, Ward, just like we have been most of these two weeks." Ward almost grimaced. Clearly Fitz knew when he was being prodded for information, or Ward was getting sloppier.

"Most?" He asked blatantly, since Fitz already knew he was searching.

"Yes, most. It's a complicated story, but one of those things that are after us found my location and I had to kill it. That's why I'm late." Ward shook his head slowly, almost disbelieving. He knew this version of Fitz could at least handle a gun, and now he filed away the information that this version of Fitz could defend himself and kill when needed. 

"You're not late." Ward replied.

"Oh good." Fitz's lips quirked in a half smile. "At least I could do that much. I landed the Zephyr, so we can get back on it and I can talk more with you. I'd like to teach you a seventh language, if you're up for it." 

"How do you know how many languages I speak in the first place?" Ward asked, raising an eyebrow at Fitz.

"A few reasons, but the reason I remember is because Coulson yelled at you about it." 

"That was just a few weeks ago for me, but it must have been years for you, you remember that?" 

"Yes. I remember a lot about you." He said smiling and stood up, carefully sliding back into his shirt. "Let's go back to the Zephyr. The shower's small, but I'm sure you want one that isn't salt water." He took a deep breath and grimaced. "Right, you said shallow breaths." Ward chuckled silently and shook his head. 

"Yes, Yes, I did." Ward followed Fitz back to the Zephyr 3, and almost ran into his back when Fitz stopped suddenly. "Fitz?" 

"I didn't leave the cargo bay door down." He whispered, and Ward was instantly on alert. 

"Give me a gun." Fitz didn't hesitate to hand one over, and kept one for himself. Ward tsked. 

"Okay bad-ass, give me that one too. You're injured." Fitz hesitated, looking at Ward, but finally handed it over. Ward turned the safety off on both of them and headed for the cargo bay carefully. Fitz followed behind quietly. Three men were in the cargo bay, discussing among themselves the fact that they hadn't found Fitz on the shuttle. Something was off about them, but Ward didn't take the time to think about it. Ward rolled in quietly behind a crate. Popping out, he aimed two head shots, taking out two of them before they could react, but the third dodged before Ward could squeeze off another shot. 

Ward hid again back behind a different crate. As he peeked out for a look, he barely dodged a chain. Fuck. Ward rolled to the other side of the crate as the enemy came around the corner, swinging the chain like a whip. He didn't dodge a third swing which caught him across the left hand, slamming the gun out of his hand. He barely managed to dodge yet another smooth swing aimed for his right hand when the man-thing dropped to the ground wrapped in some kind of wire.

Fitz was standing behind it, his hands empty, but some kind of device was attached to it's back. He pressed a large red button on the device and it constricted the man until he was sliced into pieces. Ward coughed in surprise, his eyes wide, staring at Fitz, then the mass of broken machinery. Fitz picked up Ward's dropped weapon and shot the first two again in center mass, grimacing as he did. Parts of the third assailant rolled off the ramp as Fitz slid towards the inside of the shuttle, and stayed along the wall. Ward followed as they cleared the plane. No other assailants. 

"What were those things?"

"Chronicoms, like Enoch." He said, taking a slow breath. "We have to get into the air, get away from this place before more of them show up." 

"Got it." Ward went back to the cargo bay, grabbed the chain and and rolled the bodies off the ramp before hitting a button to close the ramp, the same button he'd seen Fitz hit to open it when they'd left. As he was moving one body it twitched, and he shot it, yet again, before throwing it off the shuttle. He returned to Fitz who was in the cockpit. 

"Strap in." Fitz said his tone calm. Ward did so promptly. He'd miss his little island, a little bit, anyway. 

"You weren't kidding about saving the world, were you?"

"No. We've been in the same place for too long, they located us. We're headed to 1970 for now." Ward sat back, taking deep breaths and reanalyzing the situation. Until now, he'd refused to fully grasp Fitz's sincerity, that all of this had a real consequence, that Fitz wasn't just lying through his teeth. 

"This plan of yours. It's less about me and more about what you could do if you were undamaged, isn't it?" Ward asked quietly, and Fitz's head snapped over to look at Ward, looking at him, considering his question. 

"No. Save your questions if you would." Fitz asked politely, but there was a rage seething under those words, and Ward knew he'd touched a nerve, but he wasn't sure how. There was a jolt, and they were suddenly in another time, in another place. The Zephyr was floating over a cornfield. Ward bit his tongue, keeping himself from asking questions that he likely wouldn't understand the answers to. 

Ward truly believed now. Seeing those chronicoms roll down the ramp had snapped the last thread of disbelief he had, he just couldn't figure out how he fit in or how he could be of any real help. Doubtless they'd find other soldiers like him. He knew he was hard to replace, but in this case he'd just be a body in a war. SHIELD couldn't be struggling for warm bodies to join the fight, years after whatever had happened. 

He had so many questions, but he knew the minute he was allowed to ask them, he wouldn't want to. Ward was ready to fight.


	9. Chapter 9

Fitz finally found a secluded place to put the Zephyr down, and as he did so, he sighed with relief. "We won't be able to stay here long, but it'll do for now. I have a lot to show you, and then you have some choices to make." 

"Choices?" 

"I'm not going to force you against your will any more than I already have, my conscience won't let me, no matter what you did to me. So I'm going to tell you the truth, and show you the proof I have of it. Then you can choose. Either I drop you home, or you stay and let me do this." 

"Do what?" Ward asked, puzzled by the circular route this conversation was taking. 

"Reprogram you. Ward, You've been brainwashed." Ward jerked his head back and stared at Fitz, and then laughed slightly in surprise. 

"Brainwashing is only used on high-value targets. I'm not one. Everything I've done-"

"Good and bad, you've done of your own free will. Save it, I've heard it before, when you were talking to Daisy in your cell. Like I said, I have proof. I don't expect you to just believe me. It's extensive. You've been being brainwashed since you were a child, your parents were Hydra too." Ward jerked his head back in startlement, filing away information again. A cell. Whatever had happened between SHIELD and Hydra, he'd been captured. His parents were Hydra. "Garrett was the biggest part of it. The isolation in the woods? They dosed you with a chemical out there, had video recordings and reports of all the horrible shit Garrett did to you out there, and I found it. Hydra loves their paper, I'll tell you what. Anyway, I can't keep doing this to you without you knowing what's going on, so I'm going to show you everything, and hell, if you kill me over it, I'll understand. But I was doing this for you, not _to_ you. I hope you can remember that when you're finished reading." 

"I... I believe you right now. I don't know why, but I do." Fitz lowered his head. 

"You will, when you read about deprogramming and reprogramming." 

"You said that, earlier, you said you were reprogramming me?" Ward asked, "Not Deprogramming me?" 

"....Yes, I did say reprogramming." 

"You're using me." Ward said flatly. "All of what I'm going to read is just going to tell me how you're using me, isn't it, Fitz?" Fitz took a deep breath and winced again, and Ward cursed the impulse to worry that he had. 

"I'm not doing this to you. Garrett doesn't care about you, Ward, that was made abundantly clear to me. I'm doing this for you-"

"You said that already. Yes or no, Fitz, it's not that hard. Are you using me?" Ward demanded, and Fitz looked at Ward, tears pricking at his eyes and if that didn't just make Ward feel like a bastard. Ward didn't move, despite his guilt, he just stared at the scot, waiting for his answer. 

"..." Fitz sighed and lowered his head. "Yes." He swallowed hard. 

"Show me this fucking paperwork." Ward replied, unhooking his seat belt irritably. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
Hours later, Ward was drowning in the sheer amount of information he had, on the reports Garrett had written, so many scientific things he'd had to have Fitz explain to him like he was two, but he finally understood.

After reading Garrett's notes, Ward wanted to take _HIMSELF_ away from Garrett. "Why are you helping me?" He asked anyway, wanting Fitz's reasons.

"I think you deserve it. I think you could help us. Yes, in part I think not having brain damage might help us all survive this apocalypse, which by the way, is like the fourth one we've faced."

"The fourth?" 

"Well, the third one was a hypnotizing woman who destroys planets and creates zombies with bat creatures that fly into your mouth, so that was fun. The second one was a person who absorbed all the powers of gravitonium. I died during that one, someone else had to tell me about it. And before that, the first one was some kind of nightmare dimension that threatened to take over the entire world. There might be more, but I wasn't told." Fitz tapped his lip thoughtfully. "I know I'm forgetting one..."

"...Should you not be telling me all this? Too much knowledge of the future being a problem and all?" Fitz sighed and shook his head. 

"I'm trying to change the future." 

"...Right." 

"I have to sleep." Fitz said slowly after a wide yawn. Ward waved a hand. 

"Go. I'm going to keep reading what I can understand." That turned out to be more of Garrett's notes, and the more he read, the more disgusted he was with his past self. He'd reacted perfectly to every single bit of manipulation Garrett had done, just like he likely was reacting perfectly to Fitz. If he was reacting perfectly, though, why would Fitz stop? He puzzled over that for a minute, and all he could come up with was that Fitz was telling the truth, yet again. 

Fitz's honesty was really starting to piss him off, and he supposed that was a function of his training. He didn't trust anyone, he was always looking for the angles. He'd never met anyone in his entire life that didn't have an angle, from his family, to his brother, to, as he knew now, Garrett. No one had ever been just honest with him, even at the cost of their own goals. Especially at the cost of their own goals. By what he'd read, he knew he'd already been trained by Fitz, but right now he had to presume was a crucial part of the reprogramming. At the most important part, before this was irreversible, Fitz had given him a choice. 

He wanted to be worth that trust, yet again. He wanted to be worth the honesty. Ward took a deep breath. He wanted to be worth this choice. The only problem was, he didn't know how much of that want was due to the manipulation Fitz had already put him through, and how much of that was Ward's own desires. He leaned back in the chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. Was this more manipulation? Giving him this choice, hoping he would choose Fitz over Garrett, was this just a test? Would Fitz actually stop if this didn't work out? 

Would he go home to, in the future, give Fitz brain damage? Knowing what would happen, could he even still do it? He had to assume it was on Garrett's orders, would he be able to follow through with them? 

No, not seeing Fitz as he was, tired, worn, haggard, on the run, Ward wanted to protect him. More importantly, he was a survivor, and Hydra was not the path to survival, it was the path to an inevitable death, to a possession by something horrifying. Hydra had been fucking him over his entire life. His loyalties were to Garrett, not Hydra, and Garrett was always saying he didn't owe him anything. Reading the notes, he could almost wonder if it came from guilt. Nothing in the notes suggested Garrett had any regrets, but how could someone manipulate someone so thoroughly and not feel at least a little remorse?

Garrett, apparently, as he read more. "You don't owe me anything," along with, "It's not a weakness, is it?" were trigger phrases, bolstering and reinforcing his training, and Garrett had come up with them himself. The more he read, the more disgusted he became. He wanted to reprogram himself. "You don't owe me anything" reinforced Ward's loyalty to him. "It's not a weakness, is it?" forced obedience.

It was that suddenly that he understood Fitz's anger when he'd asked if this was just about Fitz being undamaged. Fitz would care about what had been done to Ward more than about what Ward had done to him. The needling by _The Other_ started making sense. Ward wasn't there because he was needed, he was there because Fitz _wanted_ to help him. It was a weakness. Ward might be of use, Fitz might be convincing himself that he was doing this for a selfish reason, but the reality was that he was so _good_ he was willing to give Ward a chance to be free. Fitz couldn't guarantee Ward's survival through any of the previous apocalyptic events or anything that came up and he wasn't trying to. 

This was about Ward. From start to finish, it was about Ward. Fitz's statement about not doing this _to_ him made sense as well. Fitz was trying to secure a better future for Ward.

The realization rocked Ward's world, and he had to get up to pace around the small space. Part of Ward actually wanted to just cry over it. Part of him wanted to kiss Fitz for caring so damned much, and the rest of him wanted to throw up. His body had such a visceral reaction at the idea of real compassion; Ward academically understood this was a bad thing. He wanted to reject the kindness being shown him on principle, a principle he didn't particularly understand. 

He wanted to be worthy of it, so why did he want to reject it? Why did the idea of someone being genuinely kind to him make him want to throw up everything he'd ever eaten in his life? Was it pity? Was that it? Did it make him feel like Fitz pitied him and was taking mercy on him?

No, he hadn't seen pity in those blue eyes when he'd been looking at them, just guilt and hope. He knew now they were blue, after staring at Fitz explaining. The fact that Fitz hoped, that Fitz cared, for HIM, was astounding, after everything he'd been through. Ward sat back down. It was time to go through the reprogramming notes, stop focusing on Garrett. He wouldn't have Fitz there to translate some of the more technical parts of it, but he'd puzzle through it as best as he could. It took him a while to find them, seeing as Fitz hadn't pulled them out for him as of yet, only what Ward had asked to read was on the desk.

When Ward was finished, he smirked, putting the paperwork down. Well, that was a development. He put all the papers back the way that he found it. It was time for a little test of his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapters are so short folks, but I hope you all enjoy it anyway. I'm sorry if some things in this chapter are discombobulated or out of order, writing things in chronological order is hard for me.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fitz has a nightmare, Ward learns more and asks to see someone.

Fitz had been sitting at his chair in his room, trying to build a blueprint for the cloaking at the playground. the power blinked, and the room was now dark, his eyes weren't adjusting to the lack of light well when he realized the hallway light wasn't on. He could usually see the hallway light, it kept his room from being as pitch dark as it was, and Fitz stumbled his way over to the light switch. The light wouldn't turn on.

Fitz wasn't normally afraid of the dark, but the lack of light outside when he opened the door made the hallway look like a yawning pit waiting to swallow him. He grabbed a mag-light from his drawer and turned it on. The powerful beam cut through the darkness, but only revealed more darkness. Even the walls seemed a darker grey than usual.

"May?" He asked the empty corridor. "Daisy? Simmons? Bobbi?" He called out into the hallway, and not getting a response, he continued carefully down the hall. "Coulson? Hunter?" His voice was weak and thready, fear humming through his system. He headed for the lab. The lab lights were always on, that would give him some sort of sense of normalcy, some of those lights couldn't turn off. When he got there however, the lab was as dark as the rest of the halls. 

"Mack? Anyone?" He asked the empty base, shaking in his bare feet. Suddenly water was rushing into the base and it swept him off his feet, making the flashlight drop out of his grasp and careen out of sight. Fitz grabbed onto a door frame, trying to keep from getting swept away by the current, but his grip wasn't strong enough, wet hands unable to hold on and he was swept outside, out into the sea.

He tread water in the pitch dark ocean, a crescent moon barely providing any light at all. Something grabbed his legs and he didn't have time to scream before he was dragged underwater and water filled his lungs as he was trying to take a breath. His lungs burned as he was dragged deeper and deeper under the water, the moon looking like a grinning face above him as he sank.

His feet hit the bottom of the ocean and he was dry, coughing up water all over a white tiled floor. His knees hit the floor. He breathed heavily, not knowing where his respite came from, not looking around, too busy trying to catch his breath. He'd finally managed to do so when a hand grabbed his hair, yanking it backwards, forcing him to look up at Ward, but not Ward. The all black ensemble with flowing trench coat told him he was looking at Hive.

"Doctor Leopold Fitz. What shall we do with this... impostor wearing your face?" Hive asked, continuing to grip Fitz's hair. Dr. Fitz walked around the two of them, his footsteps echoing. He looked at Fitz with a smirk, seeming to consider for what felt like an eternity. Dr. Fitz's eyes focused on Fitz's face, and Fitz shuddered hard under that gaze.

"Leave him." Dr. Fitz said finally with an eloquent shrug of one shoulder. Fixing his diamond cuff links, he continued. "I'll handle him."

"He's trying to stop us from existing, both of us." Hive replied, snarling angrily, gripping Fitz's hair tighter, and Fitz grabbed onto his hand, trying to ease the pain. Water poured out of his mouth as he tried to scream.

"And he'll fail, because he's a worthless, useless, stupid little child, and Ward will see that. Ward will see right through him, see his pining and wishing and desires, use him and discard him. He's no threat." Hive threw Fitz onto the floor and he hit hard, his ribs shooting pain up his side with the impact. 

"I want him to suffer." Hive said, his flesh morphing, transforming from Ward's appearance to a grotesque creature of tentacles.

"Make him suffer then." Fitz couldn't speak. Every time he tried, he just spat up more water. Hive grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up. Fitz grabbed the hand at his throat, scratching and clawing desperately, his feet kicking in the air fruitlessly. Ward kicked in the door, firing at Hive, and Hive dropped Fitz to turn to Ward. 

"RUN, FITZ!" Fitz wanted to yell at Ward to run himself, but only water came out, and he ran. Dr. Fitz followed him, walking calmly as Fitz ran down a hallway, his ribs jolting him with pain with every step. The hallway ended at long last, with no doors or windows or any way to escape, and behind him he heard the echoing footsteps of The Doctor following him. 

"Fitz." Dr. Fitz said, and Fitz turned around to look at him, pressing his back against the wall. The Doctor held a gun, and it was aimed right for Fitz's heart. 

"Sir?" Fitz said carefully, not knowing what else to say.

"Goodbye." Dr. Fitz pulled the trigger.

Fitz awoke suddenly, shaking and gasping for breath. His body shuddered hard, and he looked around his room, his eyes finally falling on Ward, and his mind couldn't place him for a moment. Not knowing where he was, he grabbed the gun from the side table and fired. The first shot went wide, and the second never got fired as Ward dove towards him and disarmed him with deft movements, pinning him down to the bed. 

"What, the fuck." Ward hissed down at Fitz, straddling him, both hands pinned over his head with one, his other hand gripping Fitz's throat. "What the hell was that about?"

"What'reya doin in my room?" Fitz demanded, his words slurring together. 

"I came for you." Ward replied, and Fitz looked confused as Ward, keeping his grip on Fitz's throat leaned down and kissed him, hard. "I know what you have to do, Fitz... so take me." 

"What? I-" A kiss cut Fitz off as Ward's ass ground against him and the hand on his throat tightened. 

The alarm woke Fitz, and he sat up, bleary eyed, to see Ward sitting in a chair in his room, one foot resting on his other knee, looking utterly comfortable. "Fuck..." Fitz said, rubbing his eyes, looking at Ward somewhat suspiciously, unsure if he was actually awake. "What are you doing in my room?" 

"I finished reading the paperwork you gave me. I didn't see anything on reprogramming, so I was going to ask. Since your alarm only had ten minutes on it, I figured I'd just wait." The gun that was usually by Fitz's bedside was actually sitting at Ward's left, out of his reach. "You only sleep four hours?" Ward asked in a friendly tone. 

"It's the minimum I need." Fitz said, still in that suspicious tone.

"And you wonder why you talk to yourself?" Ward asked, his tone remaining the same. Fitz's eyes narrowed at the jab, but it was a fair statement, since Fitz deliberately kept The Doctor close with the lack of sleep. He could only assume Ward meant it as banter, given his tone, but right upon waking from a nightmare was not the time Fitz wanted to joke around.

"No. I don't wonder. I do it on purpose. Can you leave for a minute? I need to get dressed." Fitz said, in as calm a tone he could manage, reaching over to shut the alarm off as it started to ring again.

"Why? It's just the two of us here." Fitz blinked slowly.

"Oookay, yeah, I'll just go get that paperwork for you in my boxers then." Fitz said sarcastically. "Ward, get out." Ward chuckled and got up, leaving the room. Fitz rushed to dress before Ward could come in again or rush him from outside the room. Ward had been in a foul mood while reading the paperwork, Fitz didn't trust this good mood to be genuine.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
Ward picked up a picture frame outside the room, of Simmons and Fitz, together outside in a beautiful forest. Simmons was in a beautiful white dress, Fitz in a tux. The wife. He'd guessed, but wasn't sure. He set the photo down. 

"So, you married Simmons." Ward said nonchalantly. 

"Technically the version of me that married her died, but for all intents and purposes, yes, we're married." Fitz replied, yawning. Ward watched the man stretch with a critical, assessing eye, watching the movement of his muscles under the simple T-shirt and jeans Fitz wore.

"Does she know about what you're doing here?" Ward fished, and Fitz sighed. 

"Yes, she does, she knows what it will take. We talked about it. I offered to divorce her, but she said she was okay with it. She understood the, necessity of this. D'y mind if I grab a cup of tea before I find that paperwork for you?"

"As long as you don't mind talking, I'll even let you drink it first." Ward teased.

"Talking?"

"Yeah, I have some questions about what I'm going to read next." Fitz nodded and headed for the kitchen. He gestured for Ward to go on, filling the electric kettle and turning it on. Ward watched the back of his head, waiting for the water to shut off before speaking. "So why reprogram me and not de-program me?" He asked curiously. 

"Out of over a thousand subjects, only two of them were successfully deprogrammed over the years. The rest it didn't work on and had a propensity to make them suicidal, homicidal or insane. I didn't want to gamble with your sanity for a .2% chance of success. That's why I'm reprogramming you instead." Ward nodded slowly, as if he was considering this information. He'd already read it.

"What should I know about the reprogramming?" Fitz flushed, and his hands shook slightly, and Ward hid a slight grin. 

"There's um, There's a lot you should know. It's... It's best if you read it." 

"I want to hear it from you." Fitz took a deep breath. 

"Well, We um... I mean, well, I have to teach you something that furthers your life, so I was thinking Scottish Gaelic." 

"Or that I was brainwashed. I'd say knowing that furthers my life a lot." 

"Oh. I... I uh, I suppose that makes sense." Fitz clearly hadn't considered this as an angle, and the look on his face was both thoughtful and confused. 

"I'll still learn Gaelic from you, if you really want to teach it to me, but I don't think it's actually needed." Fitz nodded, his back to Ward as he poured water from the kettle to the cup and dug around in the cabinets for a tin of tea.

"I um, I also have to have sex with you... to finish the erm... The reprogramming." Fitz's face was flushed a bright red, a fact Ward could tell, despite the fact that his back was turned.

"Say, hypothetically, I told you I'm straight? Then what?" Fitz shrugged one shoulder slightly. 

"I'd still offer you the choice. I'm not going to force you, if that's what you think." Fitz replied, looking over his shoulder at Ward.

"As if you could." Ward scoffed. 

"..." Fitz was silent for a long moment, and it gave Ward chills. "We don't have to find out whether I could, because I'm not going to." He said quietly. That tone wasn't quite _The Other's_ tone, but none the less, Ward wished he hadn't laughed. Fitz looked distant, glaring at air. "No, We Wouldn't." He hissed at nothing, and Ward's skin went cold. Fitz was clearly arguing with _The Other_ , and though this time he couldn't hear the words, he could still guess exactly what was being said as Fitz deliberately dropped a tea bag into his cup, almost pointedly. Maybe testing Fitz hadn't been such a good idea after all. 

Hand to hand he knew he could still take the Scot if necessary. He didn't believe otherwise. However, he still had a bracelet on his wrist that could make him sleep at any point, and Fitz was strong enough to drag and lift him if needed. 

"Fitz?" He asked carefully, and Fitz looked up with a cold, calculating expression. Ward inhaled sharply, seeing it. Fitz closed his eyes, and his expression softened. When he opened his eyes, Ward saw only Fitz.

"Sorry. I need more sleep, you were right." 

"No... It's okay." Ward said, unsure where the words were coming from. "I can handle it, Fitz, let me see him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has it felt as long for you as it has for me? Sheesh, this chapter felt like it took forever to get uploaded. I hope you all enjoy it and I hope things are going well for you.


	11. Chapter 11

Ward didn't know where he was going with this, but he wanted to see how far Fitz's trust went. How deep in the rabbit hole Dr. Fitz really was. This Fitz before him, even with his stammering and embarrassment, was worlds away from the dorky, scared-of-his-own-shadow lab nerd Ward knew, and he wanted to see how far that could go. He wanted to know how different Fitz truly could be. What could be in store for his own future? Ward did well with uncertainities, it was the nature of his work, after all, but when he could avoid them he preferred to.

He was nervous, but not afraid of Fitz. He wanted to see this _other_ , and Fitz had made it clear that it was possible. Most of all, he wanted to see if he could handle all of Fitz. Fitz had made it clear he was willing to help Ward, even after his worst moments, and he wanted to at least see the same from Fitz. In part it was still a test, but his curiousity would kill him one day, he was convinced. In Fitz's future, it sounded like his vindictiveness had in fact, killed him, but he was sure there were details he didn't know.

"Ward, it's not that simple." Fitz replied, shaking his head. Ward knew better, and he frowned at the response. Dishonesty wasn't a part of the Fitz he'd come to know. It wasn't enough to make him question Fitz's motives again, he could clearly see the hidden fear in Fitz's expression, but he was still baffled by it.

"I just saw him in you a moment ago, Fitz, you didn't hide it that well." Ward replied simply, keeping eye contact as much as Fitz would allow.

"That doesn't mean-" 

"What does it mean then?" Ward asked, a no-nonsense tone to his voice. "If it doesn't mean that I could see him, talk to him, get to know him, what does it mean?" Fitz pulled up short and stared at Ward. 

"You want to get to know him?" Fitz asked, sounding utterly aghast, his hand to his chest as if to hold his heart in. For the first time, Ward actually saw naked fear in this Fitz's eyes, not hidden under layers of confidence or buried beneath other emotions. 

"You're more afraid of yourself than you are of me, and I apparently dropped you in the middle of the ocean. Yes, I want to know what I'm dealing with." Ward said, in as reasonable a tone he could manage, projecting as much sincerity as he could. Fitz looked up at Ward, and that was a vulnerable look Ward could use. He moved around the counter to crowd Fitz against the corner and look down at him. Ward lifted his hand and carefully cupped Fitz's chin. 

"Look at me. I'm not afraid, Fitz." Ward could see the conflict in those expressive blue eyes, the coldness warring for control over warmth, and Ward pressed harder, willing Fitz's control to slip. "Show me, Fitz. I'm not going anywhere." Ward watched Fitz's control break, like a delicate glass rose shattering on unforgiving cement. _The Other_ 's lips quirked into a cruel smirk. His hand raised and two fingers touched the inside of his wrist, moving Ward's fingers away from his chin, then those two fingers pressed to Ward's chest and he found himself stepping backward at the silent command. 

"Interesting tactic." The man replied, brushing off his shirt before looking up at Ward. "Excuse me." Dr. Fitz left the room, leaving Ward alone with his thoughts. Had he thought those eyes were cold? No, they were warm and just as expressive as Fitz's own, they just expressed a warm cruelty, filled with passion for darkness. Ward might have regretted his curiousity then, if he'd been the kind of man who regretted things often. 

When Dr. Fitz returned, he was in a soft grey three piece suit and smart, shined black shoes. He entered the kitchen calmly and turned away from him, to his cup of tea, and made a simple gesture with one hand over his shoulder. 

"Sit." Ward promptly found a seat, and cursed his instincts. He hadn't asked the man out here to obey his every whim. Dr. Fitz pulled out the teabag , pressing it against the side of the cup with a spoon, gently squeezing it, then threw it in the trash.

"So..." Ward trailed off, and Dr. Fitz hmmed.

"So, indeed. Did you have a plan, or was this it?" He asked, turning around and sipping his tea. As the man leaned back against the counter, he exuded control and power, despite the very mild look of interest on his face. 

"I wanted to know what I was getting into. If I'm going to be reprogrammed, and under your control, I want to know who you are."

"Wise, but ultimately fruitless. You won't be under my control long, and you wouldn't be under me at all, if you hadn't chosen to ask for me. We will be returning you to your own time." Dr. Fitz replied, still in that mild tone, raising an eyebrow. 

"Back in my own time, where Fitz will have control of me, but not know it. Where eventually, he will become you." Dr. Fitz smiled pleasantly, but that smile sent a chill up Ward's spine. He didn't like this, and he already missed future Fitz's honesty and directness. He'd just met him, but he already didn't trust Dr. Fitz to be honest with him or any of the things he'd come to expect from Fitz.

"Possibly true. Smart of you to consider that." Ward's eyes narrowed in annoyance briefly, but he smoothed out his expression. He was used to people underestimating his intelligence because of the way he tended to present himself, there was no reason to be upset his ruse worked as well as it did. "However, you adapt to changing circumstances well, so I don't foresee you struggling much if that would be the case."

"Possibly true?" He asked curiously, playing it up, but he understood the reasons it wouldn't be absolutely true. After all, he knew about it, and he could interfere, for one.

"Your existence as part of our lives may remove some of the motivations for us building the Framework, for one. There are many reasons why I may not exist, why you may never have to deal with me in the future. It still makes sense to prepare, however. Don't let me discourage you." Dr. Fitz looked amused over his cup. 

"Where do you come from?" 

"Mmm. Another version of reality where our father didn't abandon us." 

"Your father turned you into the head of Hydra?" 

"It's slightly more complex than that, Grant." He waved a hand and then sipped his drink before continuing. "Under my leadership, Hydra becomes the government of most of North America. Well, mine and Ophelia's, the woman that was mentioned before. She and I were essentially the President and First Man of the United States." 

"But she was in charge," slipped out of Ward's mouth, and he cursed his lips for speaking out of turn as Dr. Fitz slowly raised an eyebrow and looked at Ward with scorn.

"Yes, she was Madame Hydra, and I was her loyal second."

"A woman. Head of Hydra?" Ward asked.

"Yes. Unusual, but I assure you she earned the position."

"She would have had to have, to keep it. Hydra isn't known for it's commitment to equality. You two were... together?" 

"Yes, we were a couple." Ward took a moment to digest this information, trying to ignore the odd feeling in his chest that he couldn't quite place. 

Was that... _jealousy_? If it was, why hadn't the picture of Fitz and Simmons' wedding affected him the same way? If it wasn't, then what the fuck was it? It couldn't be jealousy, it didn't make sense. He glanced back to Dr. Fitz, who had an interested look on his face.

"About the reprogramming." Ward said, changing the topic abruptly; he didn't like the way that Dr. Fitz was studying him.

"Sure." Dr. Fitz replied, nodding.

"How quickly does it work? How does it work?" 

"The basics are simple. It's a form of reprogramming that is mostly dependent on the Operation: Codex chemical. It starts with exposure to the new handler, as when we kidnapped you. First dose of the chemical, then an interaction with the handler, no longer than an hour, followed by isolation with the chemical, for an absolute minimum of thirteen and one-half days." 

"So you left me alone out there because you had to. Because you were giving me this chemical, you were retraining me to take me away from Garrett." Ward clarified.

"Yes, exactly. Then interactions with the handler, requiring learning and a certain amount of intimacy that creates an oxytocin release, which is different for each person, of course. Increasing the amount of intimacy over time is the most effective-" 

"So theoretically, we could cuddle." Dr. Fitz scoffed so hard he almost spilled his tea. Ward felt a tiny spark of victory at being able to break that mostly impassive exterior. 

"Theoretically, If Garrett hadn't been so obsessed with fucking you, yes." Ward almost choked himself. Fuck wasn't a word he'd ever expected to hear out of Fitz, much less this stoic, professional pillar of stone. "Unfortunately for you, he was." Dr. Fitz delicately shrugged. "So, if you want to be out from under his thumb, I sincerely hope you aren't straight." 

"I'm not. It was a hypothetical." Ward said, waving a hand as he recovered from his surprise, and Dr. Fitz nodded. 

"So, have you decided whether or not you want to continue?"

"..." Ward took a breath and looked at Dr. Fitz. "I would like you to get that paperwork for me." He stalled, and Dr. Fitz put down the cup. 

"Fair enough, but you won't learn much more from it than what I've said." 

"No secrets?" Ward asked, in an almost teasing tone, and Dr. Fitz didn't pause, making Ward follow him into the next room to hear him. He grabbed the paperwork and turned around. 

"Well, there is one thing. Right now is the most crucial time, during the learning phase. Sex is like locking the door, while the learning phase builds the structure of the relationship. Which makes it interesting you asked for me, since you already read this and know it all. You've already decided." Ward took a step back from the predatory smile on Dr. Fitz's face, and Dr. Fitz held out the paperwork between them in that space, continuing to smile. 

"What makes you say that?" Ward asked innocently.

"I'd honestly be disappointed in you if you hadn't. You're a spy, Agent Ward. We were suspicious the moment you were in a better mood than we'd left you. In fact, if reading about Garrett had put you in this mood, I would be questioning your sanity." Ward pursed his lips and took the paperwork being held out to him. "You forget, you're not the only observant one. If you hadn't given yourself away by your pleasantness, your lack of surprise when we told you what had to be done would have confirmed it." Dr. Fitz headed back to the kitchen. "So take your time re-reading it and pretending you haven't made up your mind. I'll be making breakfast." He waved carelessly over his shoulder, and Ward looked down at the paperwork in his hands, then back to the door Dr. Fitz had left by, and sat down. He had never felt so outmaneuvered in his life. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
Dr. Fitz went back to his cup of tea, sipping it slowly, savouring every sip. Reading Garrett's notes had made Grant predictable, and he smiled, pleased. Predictable was good, it meant that things would stay according to plan. Asking for him had been a curve ball, but not one Dr. Fitz couldn't handle. He was better equipped than his other half was to control Grant, the pathetic, stammering child that he was.

It would make adjusting to his younger self harder on Grant, but not by much. Grant was adaptable, even when Garrett was busy trying to yank the rug out from under him, Grant stayed on his feet, doing what was needed to keep his approval. His younger self would be much easier to please than Garrett or Dr. Fitz, and while that would be an adjustment for Grant, he didn't anticipate it being difficult for him at all. 

He set the cup on the counter and started pulling out a pan and a pot. Grant liked his eggs sunny-side up, with bacon so crisp it crumbled and toast about halfway to black, while he preferred boiled eggs with an english muffin and marmalade. It wasn't quite breakfast time for Grant, but after the fight and reading for several hours, it was about time for Grant's dinner, and Fitz didn't know his dinner preferences, so neither did he.

Grant was already halfway to being under their control. Operation:Codex hadn't been disbanded in his reality, Grant Ward had simply not been a subject. Pity the man was a SHIELD agent. Dr. Fitz hadn't been completely oblivious to the man's many charms, he'd just never taken the time to take him to bed, because he couldn't trust him fully. Luckily, considering he'd likely be dead if he had. 

This ran the same risk. The only reason he wasn't paranoid the man was coming up behind him to kill him was that Grant wanted back to his own time, and he couldn't get there on his own. Fitz made sure to keep them a significant amount in the past from Grant's time that Grant couldn't just go to a bolt hole and come out in a year or two and resume his work. He replayed their conversations mentally, looking for holes, anything he'd missed in Grant's reactions. 

Well, there was the abrupt way he'd changed the subject. Something about him being with Ophelia had upset Grant, which was also good, it meant the attachment was working, despite the short amount of time he'd been isolated. Dr. Fitz plated the bacon and started on Grant's eggs, then put the pot of boiling water in the sink and ran the cold water over the soft-boiled eggs so he could peel them.

"Tell me about you." Grant said quietly from behind him, and Dr. Fitz paused and turned his head to look at Grant, raising an eyebrow. Grant would kick himself if he knew how vulnerable he looked to Dr. Fitz right now. 

"Why?" He asked, shutting off the water and taking the toast out of the toaster and putting it on Grant's plate. 

"Because you know more about me than anyone else, maybe even Garrett. You're putting together my favourite breakfast. You know what I like in my trail mix, and more importantly, what I won't eat. You know my favourite seasonings. You know everything my brother did to me, and my mother, and my father. I didn't even know you liked boiled eggs." Ah, the vulnerability was on purpose then. He was trying to manipulate him. He didn't actually need to, Dr. Fitz would have answered the question regardless, but a spy was a spy, no matter where you put them. 

"You don't have to pretend to be vulnerable, that won't work on me like it works on Fitz." Grant straightened up sharply and sat back. 

"Habit." He shrugged. 

"I thought as much. What do you want to know?" Grant paused.

"...I don't actually know. I just want to know about you." 

"Me, or Fitz?" That made Grant pause again, and Dr. Fitz was amused, just ever so slightly. 

"You wouldn't tell me about Fitz, would you?" 

"No, I wouldn't." Grant sighed and nodded. 

"I'll ask him then." 

"Good boy." Grant's eyes went wide, and he flushed under Dr. Fitz's eyes, he watched Grant's face go red. "Go on, ask me about myself." He said, satisfied with Grant's reaction, he turned back to the stove and put his english muffin in the toaster before taking the pan to the counter and sliding Grant's eggs onto the plate and sliding the plate in front of him.

"So. What did you do for Madame Hydra?" Grant asked, taking the plate and making a sandwich with the two eggs and the bacon.

"I built machines and studied, tortured, and dissected Inhumans to understand their powers and give them to Ophelia."

"Wait, you figured out how to give someone powers?" 

"It required leaving the framework and building a new body and transferring the consciousness into the new body, which I designed a machine to do."

"Wait, you designed a machine that could create an entire living body?" Grant demanded. 

"Yes, I did."

"And I thought the ICERs were impressive work."

"Oh, did you?"

"They were off by an ounce, but they worked, and it was impressive that they did." Grant said with a shrug. "I've always been impressed by your gadgets, I just never said anything because it would be out of character for the way I acted around you all." Dr. Fitz nodded and grabbed his muffin from the toaster and spread butter, then marmalade on it in a thin layer. "Why were you paying so much attention to me?" 

"You can ask Fitz." Grant's lips pursed, clearly he thought he'd get away with that one. "And you can stop pouting if you don't want me to kiss you right now." Grant jerked and immediately stopped pouting. 

"I wasn't pouting!" Grant replied, looking offended, and Dr. Fitz chuckled. 

"Yes, you were."

"Are you a permanent fixture in Fitz's life or are you temporary?" Grant asked, continuing his questions, still slightly scowling over being told he was pouting. 

"As far as I understand, I'm temporary. I'm only around when he's lacking sleep." 

"And he's limiting his sleep to keep you around on purpose." 

"Yes, he is." Dr. Fitz nodded, as he started peeling his eggs. 

"...Why?" 

"Because he doesn't have what it takes to do this on his own, and he knows that." 

"Seemed like he was doing fine to me." Grant quipped. "Seems more like you second guess him." 

"He needs someone second guessing him, keeping him motivated." 

"In that first conversation, it really sounded like you were discouraging him." 

"And it made you step in, didn't it?" Grant jerked his head back in realization.

"You were trying to get me to respond." 

"I knew you were awake, even if he didn't realize it. Being a manifestation of his subconscious, he wasn't aware that he knew."

"So you were already manipulating me. Fitz isn't trying to manipulate me, but you are. He knows that, so he agreed he was using me when really, it's you." 

"We're one person." 

"With two entirely different lives." Dr. Fitz paused in the middle of salting his egg and looked at Grant with some confusion. 

"Yes?" He asked, in a where-are-you-going-with-this tone.

"So, no, not really, you're not the same person. He's him, and you're you. You didn't live his life, and you wouldn't understand him if you weren't in his head looking at all of his thoughts."

"No, I wouldn't, I suppose. Where are you going with this, exactly?" Dr. Fitz asked, finally just stating his question instead of letting Grant infer it from his tone. 

"Being that you lived separate lives and you would have no clue what Fitz would do at any given moment, you have different motivations. What I'm trying to figure out is, what do you get out of all of this and what your, motivation for being involved in my... treatment is."

"I like science." Dr. Fitz said mildly and bit into his egg calmly. Grant's expression went utterly flat.

"Really?" He asked, his tone sarcastic. Dr. Fitz raised an eyebrow at him. 

"No." Grant sighed heavily. 

"Okay, so what is it, then?" 

"It allows me an in depth study into a years-long experiment in brainwashing that I used to have available to me, but never really touched on. Additionally, you're attractive." 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
"So, wait, you're, using me to feel like you're back at Hydra playing with peoples lives and...." Ward stopped as he processed the part where Dr. Fitz said he was attractive. His mind went blank and all he could do was sit there and stare at the man. Dr. Fitz finished his plate and set it in the sink as Ward continued to process, letting him sit there in silence for a few minutes, a respite Ward was grateful for. Attractive? Dr. Fitz thought he was attractive? Why?

Wards mind churned over everything that had been said and done. He still felt like a lab rat for Dr. Fitz, and he was still confused by how jarringly different Fitz had become, down to his mannerisms and even his voice, somewhat. This was not a man whom Ward would have assumed charm to work on, nor someone he thought would be swayed by attractiveness. So why mention it? Dr. Fitz spoke up while Ward was considering. 

"We're reprogramming you. I'm seeing if it actually works, that's all. If to you, that seems like I'm playing with your life? Well, maybe a little bit." Dr. Fitz shrugged nonchalantly. "I find Garrett's particular methods distasteful, and as I told Fitz before when you weren't around, his goals are my goals now. So my motivation-as if I were an actor or something-Is to assist him in assisting you."

Ward sat listening carefully. He was unnerved by Dr. Fitz control and calm. He'd thought digging at him would get a more emotional response and had to do his best not to look irritated by the fact he didn't get one. In fact, Dr. Fitz was nagging more emotion out of Ward than Ward wanted to show, his irritation and his exasperation and his surprise.

"You said something to Fitz earlier. I didn't hear it." 

"You mean when you'd challenged us to force you to have sex with us." Dr. Fitz waved a hand. "I said we could entice you to stop caring about being straight for a while. He didn't like that." 

"Entice me how." Ward asked, in a disbelieving tone. 

"Go fetch the disc remote from your bag. I'll show you how." Ward looked suspicious but got up to go fetch the devil remote, as he called it, from the front pocket of his ration bag and brought it back to Dr. Fitz, handing it over cautiously. Dr. Fitz smirked, looking at Ward like he was a meal, and Ward tried not to shrink back from him.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kitten button, and some angst-ish fluff

Dr. Fitz held onto the remote and looked at Ward. "This is the point of no return, you realize." He said calmly, eyeing Ward. Ward took a deep breath, and then another. 

"Yeah, yeah I know that," Dr. Fitz just nodded, keeping his eyes on Ward. "But you would take me back, if I said no?" 

"Fitz would. I personally wouldn't have given you this choice. It's been offered to you, but you asked for me, knowing I was a sadist and a torturer, knowing what it would take. You didn't want the chance to say no." Ward considered his words carefully, his breath shallowing slightly. He didn't know why, but he was afraid. He'd never thought he'd be afraid of Fitz, but... No, no buts, he wasn't afraid of Fitz. Ward was afraid of the truth. He was afraid to admit it. He'd been avoiding giving an answer this entire time. 

He did want someone to force him to be helped. He didn't think he could say he wanted this, despite now wanting to admit it, he couldn't form the words. Garrett kept coming to mind like he was glitching. He could almost feel the glare on his skin, hear Garrett in his head berating him for being stupid and weak already.

"You want me to make you." Dr. Fitz said, holding the remote in his hand. "Right now, Garrett's in your head, isn't he? Your old training rejecting the new handler, trying to maintain control. That's the part that drives people mad, suicidal, homicidal. But you're stronger than that, aren't you, Grant?" Ward started, hearing his first name slip between those lips, the tone Dr. Fitz used like a soothing balm on his worries, even as it was disconcerting that he could almost see into his mind, his tone was seductive. "You're stronger, more powerful than he ever thought you were. He kept you down, shrank your world to him, but he didn't realize you were more than he ever was. You're a lethal weapon, of a caliber he could never hope to match." Dr. Fitz continued to purr quietly. 

"He got me out of juvie, he-" Ward hated how weak his voice sounded as Dr. Fitz was stroking his chest with a finger, he could barely speak at all, but he tried. "He taught me how to survive." 

"He dumped you in a forest with nothing, he made you figure it out on your own. He used you. He took you. He hollowed you out and filled you with the idea that you were weak, that you needed him, and reinforced your loyalty by reminding you of the truth. You don't owe him anything." Ward broke free of the Doctor's touch, stumbling out of the chair and backing up against a wall. 

"No. No, I owe that man everything. I wasn't strong enough, I failed him, more than once." Ward said, shaking his head, his eyes wide, feeling like a rabbit in the sight of a wolf. Dr. Fitz advanced towards him slowly, smirking. 

"You can't even admit to yourself that you're worth more than he told you you were. Where's all your confidence? Where's the specialist who could snap my neck in a second? I don't see him. Right now I just see Garrett's toy. Make no mistake, that man goes so far as to call you his toy in his notes."

"I read it." Ward admitted taking a moment to look around. He began to feel more trapped as Dr. Fitz came closer.

"So say it." Dr. Fitz soothed, and Ward didn't know when he'd slid to the ground, but Dr. Fitz was crouching to his level, stroking his hair now as Ward couldn't fight the words in his head, Garrett screaming at him, while Dr. Fitz was there, the answer, the way to make Garrett shut up, forever. Dr. Fitz was there, so easy to kill, so easy to obey the voice in his head, but then he'd never get home. "Grant. Let him go."

"Show me how..." slipped out of Ward's lips finally, and Dr. Fitz sat next to him, smirking. 

"I will." He pressed the kitten button on the remote firmly, and Ward flinched, expecting pain. 

Instead, his body lit up with pleasure that made him sigh in relief. His head hit back against the wall, and Dr. Fitz stayed next to him, whispering quietly. It took Ward a few minutes to be able to actually pay attention, he was too busy feeling the waves of pleasure that ebbed and flowed over him, washing away the sound of Garrett's voice. 

"I could take you into my mouth right now, wouldn't that be nice?" Dr. Fitz asked, and Ward's attention snapped over to his new handler. Yes, that would be very, very nice. Ward was hard in his pants, now that he realized it, he'd be surprised if his cock didn't have an imprint of his zipper on it by now, it felt so good, but it hurt. "Wouldn't you like to watch me run my tongue along your cock?" Dr. Fitz continued to whisper, and Ward whimpered, nodding. "You'd be such a good boy for me, wouldn't you? Making beautiful noises as I hold your hips with my hands and take you into my mouth, swallowing you inch by inch." Ward gasped as his eyes shut, picturing it as Dr. Fitz spoke. 

"I'd hum around your cock, you'd taste so good, wouldn't you, as my tongue pressed against your underside, I'd grab hold of what I couldn't fit into my mouth and stroke you in my fist." Ward let the words take him, his head back against the wall, his fingers moving to free himself, but once he was free, deft fingers gently lifted his hand from his cock, setting his hand on the ground. His fingers curled into fists automatically, keeping him from touching himself. 

"I'd take care of you so good, pulling back and wrapping my tongue around your head, sucking hard, and the noises I'd make would be utterly obscene, moaning around the taste of you." Ward could picture those blue eyes staring up at him, he could almost hear the noises Dr. Fitz was talking about. His cock twitched in the cold air as Dr. Fitz stroked his hair and continued whispering. 

"My teeth would graze you, just slightly, testing and, oh, you like that, don't you?" He could hear the smirk as Ward gasped quietly, his eyes opening slightly, confirming what he'd thought, his cock was leaking now, a pearl of pre-cum beading on the tip. He nodded slowly to Dr. Fitz's question, and closed his eyes again. "I'd press my teeth gently into your head, gently, carefully, then a little harder-god, you're beautiful like this, Grant..." He trailed off as Ward arched his back into the words, gasping for breath.

"Please... oh god, please..." It took Ward a moment to realize the person speaking was him. 

"Good boy." He whispered into Ward's ear, and Ward felt him shift, and a hand wrapped around his cock. Ward's eyes snapped open when he felt a tongue lave over his head and he moaned, seeing those brown curls bobbing over his cock, and his hand reached for them carefully, and when his hand wasn't slapped away, he gripped onto Dr. Fitz's hair, making him moan around his cock and Ward tried hard not to buck into that mouth. 

"Fuckkk..." He whispered. "S, Sir?" He felt Dr. Fitz smile around his cock and look up, and his mouth came free with an obscene pop, and those blue eyes were electric, rooting Ward to the ground, driving all thought out of Ward's mind. 

"Call me Leo." Ward nodded, wide eyed, unable to form a coherent sentence as Dr. Fi-As Leo, brought his mouth back to Ward's cock, and keeping his eyes on Ward, pressed his teeth gently onto his flesh. Ward cried out, gasping for breath, both hands curling tighter.

"Leo, I'm, I'm gonna-" Leo slapped two fingers against the inside of Ward's thighs and gave him a hard look, and Ward stopped, taking slow, deep measured breaths, trying to keep a hold on his orgasm, but the sharp slap had unexpectedly made it even harder. As Leo took him deeper into his throat, Ward whined pathetically. He let go of Leo's hair before he ripped it out, grabbing onto his own hair with both hands "Fuck!" 

Ward had been edged before, but never so ruthlessly that he could remember. He bit his lower lip and tried to shut out the hand twisting over his cock, the laving tongue, the sadistic smirk he could feel as Leo's fingers curled around his balls and caressed them. Ward tried to maintain his breathing, tried to avoid any more embarrassing whines from leaving his throat, but instead words poured out. 

"Leo, please, Leo, please, I need to, please, fuck, please, please, please, please-"

"Where do you want to cum, Grant?" Leo asked, and Ward whined, hearing his voice. Leo ruthlessly stroked his cock, his thumb rubbing over the head on every stroke. 

"Anywhere, anywhere, please just let me-" He gasped. 

"Cum for me then." Leo said and swallowed his cock again. Ward came explosively, his entire body shuddering with the relief of it. Leo continued to suck until he was soft and over sensitive, and Ward gasped for breath, keening and whining until Leo finally let go of his cock, sitting back. His eyes were filled with his sadistic pleasure, his lips pink and wet, and his hair a mess from Ward's hands, and all Ward wanted to do was bury his face in Leo's shirt and hold him until the shakes passed.

"Fuck..." He breathed instead, keeping himself from burying himself into the arms of the man. But it was like Leo could read his mind, his arms opened, and Ward didn't need a second invitation to wrap himself around his handler, burying his face in his neck, practically in his lap. The man just held him, stroking his hair gently.

"Shhhh..." Leo whispered, continuing to stroke his hair, and Ward realized he was crying. Humiliated, he started to pull away, but Leo held him firmly. "It can happen after a scene, especially an emotional one like the one we just had, it's okay, just stay. Just cry." Leo replied, holding onto Ward, and Ward wrapped himself around Leo tighter. "It's okay to feel, Grant, it's okay to cry. We're never going to judge you for it. You're safe here." 

"...A scene?" Ward asked, sniffling a bit. 

"In BDSM, a Scene is when a Dominant and a submissive interact in a particular way. It's complicated to explain right now, but I can teach you about it later. All you need to know right now is the scene began when you handed over the remote." Ward nodded quietly. He knew enough about BDSM to understand what a scene was, now that he knew what the comment was about in the first place. He let Leo stroke his hair, feeling completely wrung out. 

He finally pulled back and Leo let him. Ward could see the concern lining Leo's face as Leo stroked his face. 

"You're not as cold as you act." Ward accused quietly, and Leo smirked, his lips quirking up.

"You're right, of course." He admitted freely, standing up and offering Ward his hand. "Come, you should get some sleep." Ward took his hand and let the smaller man pull him to his feet. 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
Ward spent several more weeks with Leo and Fitz, learning about BDSM from Leo, and learning Gaelic as promised from them both. Fitz would teach him words, while Leo would teach by immersion, refusing to speak in anything other than Gaelic, rather pointedly. Between the two of them, he managed to get a passable amount of Gaelic under his belt. 

"You'll learn more from the younger us." Leo said one day, switching abruptly back to English, and Ward blinked, having forgotten he was going back. 

"What?" 

"We are, sending you home." Leo reminded him, his eyes focused on Ward now.

"What about..." Ward made a gesture between them, looking distraught. 

"If you want this relationship you have with us, go after it. I know you're with May at the moment, but if you want us, be with our younger self. You can do it." 

"He doesn't know he owns me." Leo gripped Ward's chin and held it, forcing him to meet his eyes. 

"I, don't own you. We, Don't OWN, You. We love you. Both of us now, that's why we did this." Ward took a step back in surprise. He'd had his suspicions, but he'd never expected to hear it, especially not from Leo. From Fitz, maybe, but not Leo. "We freed you from Garrett because we love you. And our younger self loves you. You're not losing us, you're keeping a whole version of us." 

"The fuck? You, love me? You don't own me? Seilbh Leo Fitz, remember? OWNED BY, Leo Fitz." Ward shook his left bracelet at him. 

"Yes, I remember, I made that inscription. Before I watched you come apart in my arms and I fell in love with you." Ward pressed his fingers to his temples, pacing in a circle in front of Dr. Fitz. 

"Which is it? Did you fall in love with me while you were doing this, or did you love me and you did this?" 

"It's both, Grant, Grant, calm down." 

"How?! How is it both?!" 

"Fitz did this because he was in love with you and he read everything and wanted to help you. I fell in love with you." 

"But you did own me. It's not exclusive, you can own me and you can love me." 

"You want me to own you." Dr. Fitz realized slowly as he spoke the words, looking shocked.

"Yes! No, I don't know!" Ward said and threw his arm like he was knocking something off a desk, but there was nothing in front of him. "Your younger self can't be you. I'm going to miss you, Leo." Leo took a deep breath, and Ward realized he was getting past that exterior he'd wanted to, to the deeper part of 'Dr. Fitz', to the emotions and feelings inside the man.

"You have to go home, Grant..." Ward glared at him and shoved him backwards suddenly, and Leo looked up at him in surprise, struggling back to his feet as Ward stalked towards him, but instead of hitting him he grabbed him by the shoulders. 

"Leo. I'm going to miss, _you_." Something in those eyes had shattered, and Leo just looked vulnerable and innocent and a little lost in Ward. Ward sank to the ground while maintaining his hold, his knees on either side of Leo's hips, straddling him.

"No... I'm just... I'm just-" Ward's lips came down hard on Leo's, kissing him deeply and forcefully, and Leo just sat there, his eyes wide as he kissed him back. Leo looked dazed when Ward finally pulled away. "I'm going to miss you too..." Leo admitted, breathing heavily, tears on the edge of those lashes. 

"I don't care what you think you're just." Ward said quietly, gently passing his thumb over Leo's lower lip. "You matter to me. I want all of you."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
Another few weeks went by, and Ward's understanding of Gaelic was almost perfect. His accent was atrocious, but the more he heard of it, the better it got. Fitz was looking up at him, and Ward's heart dropped into his stomach. He knew that look. Ward sat down for whatever news Fitz had for him. 

"I have to get back to the rest of the team." Fitz said, looking down, and Ward sighed deeply, nodding. 

"And you can't take me with you." 

"No, I can't." Fitz whispered, looking up at Ward with a sad face. "I wish I could, I wish I could have helped you more, but they need me, and I have to go to them. Which means I have to take you home.

"It won't be the same for me back there, I'm going to be-" 

"Fine, Ward, you're going to be fine. You can do this, I believe in you." When Fitz said that in that tone, Ward felt like he could do anything for him, but this? This hurt. Ward sighed and nodded quietly.

"What if you're wrong? What if you don't like me? What if you don't want me?" He asked quietly. 

"You be yourself, and I will." He said gently. "Give me your wrists." Ward surrendered his wrists over and Fitz said 'Release' in Gaelic. The bracelets opened and dropped into his hands, and Ward snatched his wrists back, almost whining. He held his wrists. "Ward?" 

"Sorry. I'll get over it, it was just... they were a symbol of us... and now I don't have anything to remember this, my wrists aren't even marked." Fitz took a deep breath and looked at Ward, nodding. 

"Okay. Wait here." Ward rubbed his wrists, but he waited as instructed quietly. Thirty minutes later Fitz came back with another bracelet, just one now, and carefully closed it around Ward's wrist. "Here, love." Ward had seen an inscription on the inside, in flowing letters. "You can take it off with the word for Freedom." Ward sighed and looked at the bracelet, feeling comforted slightly. 

"Saorsa." He said, and caught the bracelet to read the inscription on the inside. Tha Gaol Agam Ort. I love you. He snapped the bracelet back on smiling. Ward kissed Fitz, and Fitz sank into him, wrapping his arms around him.


	13. Epilogue

Ward was dropped off at the hotel and he looked at the time. In ten minutes he would be kidnapped from this very hotel, and while it crossed his mind not to let it happen, he did nothing about it, having a drink at the downstairs bar while he waited, before heading upstairs to his room. He opened the door to find it empty. He took a deep breath and shut his door behind himself, heading for May's room. He pulled her door shut gently.

Standing in the hall, he looked back at his room, then down the hall to Fitz's room, thinking, making a choice. He could go back to his room, or he could try to make this work like Future Fitz suggested. He finally walked down the hall to Fitz's room, ignoring May's door opening and her staring at his back. He knocked on the door.

Fitz opened the door, and Ward drank in the look of innocence that it felt like he hadn't seen in years, the open trust in Fitz's smile. "Hey, yeah, I'm just watching the football game, you want to join me?" He said in a friendly, unguarded tone, and Ward swallowed hard to hear it and nodded. Ward stepped forward and took Fitz's wrist and grabbed hold, tightly. Fitz looked up at Ward in surprise. "Ward?"

Ward buried his fingers in those familiar brown curls and pulled Fitz into his arms, kissing him hard. He shut his eyes, not wanting to see rejection in those eyes he knew would be wide open and surprised. So when Fitz's free hand came up to his chest, he expected to be pushed away the way he was. 

"Ward, are you drunk?" Fitz asked carefully, and Ward opened his eyes, not having expected that question. 

"I had one drink downstairs at the bar." 

"Today was a hard day, wasn't it?" Fitz said gently, tugging Ward inside the room and shutting the door behind him. Ward almost laughed. 

"Fitz, I'm fine." 

"You-You're kissing me, you're not fine." Fitz stammered slightly, pulling his arm free. Ward tilted his head slightly, looking down at Fitz. Insecurity, he recognized after a moment. Future Fitz was so self confident he'd forgotten how insecure his little engineer was. Ward let his expression soften. 

"Fitz. I'm not drunk, I'm not still upset. I just wanted to kiss you. I thought you liked me. Sorry if I misunderstood." Fitz flushed a deep red, and Ward could appreciate the bashfulness, the difference between the two of them all over again, the openness that Ward would certainly take advantage of. Fitz looked up at him, his face still red, but his eyes full of wonder and disbelief simultaneously. 

"You... you barely know me." He whispered in wonderment. "You can barely stand me." Ward tried not to wince. Maybe once that was true, but hearing those words out of Fitz's mouth hurt, now.

"And yet you know a ton about me, don't you?" Ward asked, leaning close, not disagreeing. "I can learn about you, if you'll teach me. I can teach you more about me, stuff you can't find out by just watching me around the bus." Ward took a calculated risk and kneeled before Fitz, who promptly sat down on the bed to be closer to Ward's height. Not the response Ward was hoping for, but not a negative one either. 

"You're serious, aren't you?" Fitz whispered in awe, his fingertips reaching out fumblingly to trace Ward's chin and Ward closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. He could hear Fitz's ragged breaths as he accepted the reality in front of him, could picture the look in those blue eyes well enough that he didn't need to see them. 

"Very serious." Ward breathed quietly, and Fitz took a deep breath. Ward opened his eyes and met Fitz's. 

"You... want me?" Fitz queried innocently, and Ward leaned forward, kissing his innocence from his lips. Ward leaned forward as Fitz moaned, taking the invitation to slip his tongue inside, and Fitz's hands came up and gripped his hair, kissing him back desperately. Their tongues did battle in the cavern made by the joining of their lips. Ward didnt know when Fitz had climbed into his lap, but he suddenly had his arms full of Fitz, legs wrapped around his waist, and he moaned as Fitz ground against him.

Ward slid his hands up under Fitz's shirt , loving the moans that came from raking his nails up his sides, as he pulled the cardigan up and over Fitz's head. Fitz was just as handsy, untucking his shirt and pulling it off, Ward moaned quietly into their desperate kiss at the press of flesh against flesh, finally. There were entirely too many clothes involved with him and Leo.

"I don't have-" Whatever Fitz didn't have as cut off by a long moan as Ward freed his cock and grabbed it. "Oh god, Ward!" Ward had a brief moment of consideration wondering what Simmons would be thinking next door if Fitz continued to be this loud, then he promptly forgot about Simmons when Fitz latched his mouth to Ward's neck and started sucking on his pulse, reminding him of what those lips would feel like wrapped around his cock.

In fact, if Fitz kept that up, he'd definitely have hickeys, which could turn out to be a problem, but the bracelet glinted in the light when he raised his hand to pull him away gently, and he found himself stroking Fitz's hair instead in time with the strokes of his cock. Fitz's teeth sank into his neck as Ward twisted his fingers and Ward hummed in happiness, realizing he was doing well.

"You don't have...?" Ward prompted finally when Fitz let go of his neck, the little vampire, and Fitz looked confused, breath ragged through his lips as Ward refused to let up the pace he set on Fitz's cock. "Experience? Lube? Condoms?" Ward prompted when it was clear Fitz wasn't going to be able to find his words on his own, and each word made Fitz flush harder red.

"Yes." Fitz managed, and Ward chuckled, letting go of Fitz's cock, earning himself a little pathetic whine as he lifted Fitz onto the bed by his ass, then continued to stroke his cock. 

"Yes?" Ward asked, and leaned forward, licking Fitz's head lightly, then blowing on it gently, making Fitz let out a high pitched whine that made Ward smirk to hear it. 

"I-I don't have any of that..." Fitz admitted when Ward backed off of him slightly, and Ward smiled quietly. How fun. Fitz without experience, ready to be taught everything about love and lust, and Ward was eager to teach; not so eager to push Fitz too far, too fast though.

"Don't worry about it right now. If it turns out we're headed that way I'll take you to my room, but for now, just enjoy." 

"I-WARD!" Fitz exclaimed when Ward took him into his mouth and down his throat in one smooth action. "OH, FUCK!" Ward almost chuckled around him, sucking slowly, learning him as he did, finding out what made him squeal and moan and get loud, pulsing his tongue against the underside of the head to make him scream and cum hard. Ward swallowed hard, careful to avoid teeth and continued to suck Fitz dry. He pulled his mouth free finally when Fitz was gasping above him, and Fitz stared at Ward with wide eyes. 

Ward was not anticipating Fitz throwing himself at Ward and hugging him tightly. Fitz was still shaking as he held him, and Ward stroked his back gently through the shakes until Fitz calmed down, staying quiet. Fitz pulled away gently, looking at Ward finally, letting out a slow breath. 

"Ward, I can't believe... That was amazing." He finished quietly, and Ward smiled. 

"Tha gaol agam ort." Ward said quietly in Gaelic, and Fitz looked up at him with awe in his eyes.

"I can't believe it..." Fitz whispered, and kissed Ward again. His palm slid up Ward's chest to his hair, and he looked at Ward with wide eyes. Ward smiled and stroked Fitz's hair slowly. 

"It's okay. I'll prove it to you, if you're willing to let me." Ward replied, keeping his eyes on Fitz's, wishing he could open his soul and let Fitz look at the truth in his words.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-  
Months later, during the fall of SHIELD, Garrett was discovered as Hydra. Ward asked Victoria Hand to go along, to take him to the Fridge.

"Course is locked ma'am." Said an agent, and Agent Hand nodded, as the agent took his seat beside Garrett. 

"Good." She said and glanced over at Ward. "He's not telling stories now, is he?" She asked smugly. "You know what I'm thinking, Agent Garrett? I'm thinking the Icebox at the Fridge is a little too comfortable for you. Maybe we should put you a little deeper underground." Garrett glared up at her in silence. "What do you think, Agent Ward, you shot the wrong Clairvoyant before. Care to shoot the right one?" 

Ward stared at Garrett, and pages and pages of notes flickered though his head, the several months old memory now making him angrier, but his hand didn't shake in the slightest as he held the gun to Garrett's head.

"You always said I didn't owe you anything." He told Garrett, and as he saw the light dawn in Garrett's eyes that he was going to die, as Garrett opened his mouth, Ward fired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! For more of this pairing check out Arrows and Bonfires, for some drabbles and backstory.There may be more than the four chapters currently available in the future if this fic hits my fancy the right way. I appreciate everyone who comments on my work, and thank everyone who has read this far!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Arrows and Bonfires](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26144140) by [Shaebae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaebae/pseuds/Shaebae)




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